- Nia with The Friends of Llanelli Train Station, Keep Wales Tidy, Carms Tidy Towns & local volunteers.
Members of ‘The Friends of Llanelli Train Station group’, set up last year by Nia Griffith, were delighted to be joined yesterday by Keep Wales Tidy, Carms Tidy Towns & local volunteers to start work on clearing up the triangular area of rough ground by the Llanelli West level crossing gates. The idea is to create a garden with a memorial to the two men who were shot during the Llanelli railway strike in 1911. To provide inspiration to volunteers and gather support across the town for the project, architect David Darkin, who chairs the committee, has sketched a few preliminary ideas of what the garden could look like.
The committee members who responded last year to a call by Nia Griffith for rail enthusiasts and people wanting to improve Llanelli’s image to join a group which will officially speak up for and look after Llanelli railway station, have had the necessary permissions and safety briefings from Network Rail, and were glad to get started on some practical work.
Nia Griffith explained, “Many thanks to everyone who took part yesterday. It was great to be doing something really practical, and get started on making Llanelli Station an area to be proud of. Anyone who has travelled on the Heart of Wales Line will have seen how beautifully kept many of the stations are, and will understand why I was very concerned when I realised that Llanelli was one of a very few stations on the Heart of Wales line, which did not have a local group looking after it. I know that people in Llanelli want our station to be as good as the best on the line. Not having had a formal group also means that we have been missing out on the help available to enhance the station. That’s why I called people together for that purpose. Good work has been done in the past by local volunteers and schools, but we need continuity and now, with ‘The Friends of Llanelli Train Station’, we will have that continuity, and we are also able to apply for grant funding for some improvements. This is all still at the very early stages and we would welcome more volunteers and any constructive ideas –such as one volunteer pointing out yesterday that we need to include litter bins on the plans.”