Have YOU got a story? Email: poppy.gibson@mailonline.co.uk Llanelli in west Wales, just ten miles from Swansea, was once a bustling market ...
- Have YOU got a story? Email: poppy.gibson@mailonline.co.uk
Llanelli in west Wales, just ten miles from Swansea, was once a bustling market town.
Steeped in history, it was built in part by the money made from the Stepney clan, a distinguished local family who invented the tyres fitted on all London taxis just a century ago.
But the Llanelli of today couldn't be more different.
Rather than a buzzing town with crowds of shoppers and cafes and restaurants bursting with visitors, empty units and betting shops line the streets while rubbish piles up in doorways.
Some locals now even confess they're too scared to look around the few remaining stores because of drug addicts dropping needles and shouting at passers-by.
Ed Davies, 31, a former business owner told MailOnline: 'Why would you come here? I'm embarrassed to say I'm from Llanelli.'
Frustrated with the lack of improvements from the local Labour-run council, Llanelli residents have decided to turn to Nigel Farage 's Reform Party.
Earlier this month Labour admitted Reform is a 'serious threat' in Wales after a poll found the party on track to win elections next year and nowhere is the swing more obvious than Llanelli.
More In Common research for Sky News put support for Farage on 28 per cent, ahead of Plaid Cymru on 26 per cent.
Labour was in third on 23 per cent, while the Tories and Lib Dems were trailing on 10 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
In the 2024 general election Reform lost out by just 1,500 votes and have now come back with a vengeance to win over the local council.
Residents told MailOnline they hoped that Reform could offer the change and rejuvenation Llanelli needs and hoped that Nigel Farage's policies could rid the town of its drug problem and improve the rundown centre.
Locals explained that with the crumbling shop parades, the community spirit has all but gone and drug addicts have made it such an unwelcome place they're too scared to venture in to the shopping centre.
One retired nurse and grandmother, who wished to remain anonymous, said her granddaughter is so scared to come in to town she has to be accompanied.
The 73-year-old added that the drug problem in the centre is so bad that she and her family worry about getting high off the smoke.
She said: 'My granddaughter won't walk through on her own anymore, she says you can get high of the drugs being smoked. I have to bring her in if she wants to get her nails done or anything.
'The druggies hang around in the centre and it's horrible. It's really bad.'
The worried former nurse added that she knows the council are trying with new business spaces but unfortunately it's not enough to turn the tide.
She added: 'Compared to what it was - they're trying and building new flats with business spaces underneath but there's no footfall. It's a sad state of affairs.'
And her thoughts were echoed by retiree Arwyn Owens, 75, who explained that the increase in drug use and the run down centre had led him to turn his back on Labour.
He said: 'I've lived here all my life and it used to be thriving but now all we've got are charity shops. We've got no big shops anymore just banks and empty shops and betting shops.
'Right next to the Boots it's just drug addicts wandering around and people are afraid to go in to town now.
'I don't know what needs to be done but something. I've voted Labour all my life but never again. The council used to be run by Labour, we had Labour for 20 years but they've done nothing.
'I think we need someone new who's for the community rather than voting for the council, we need to be prioritised.'
Gary James, 42, was in agreement and said the entire town had 'gone downhill'.
He told MailOnline that he remembered when Llanelli very busy but now there were no new businesses which had left the town drained of community spirit.
Stepney Street, Llanelli's main shopping artery named after the once rich and powerful local Stepney family was full of boarded up shops punctuated by for sale signs.
On the corner, right next to the street sign lauding a family which had once brought such prosperity to the area was the local job centre which had streams of addicts walking in and out in a daze.
The local post office was boarded up and even the charity shops were closing their doors.
Rows of empty retail units looked long abandoned and walking in to the market felt like walking back into a ghost town.
Big brands like Tesco, Marks & Spencers, Argos and Iceland have all moved out and residents say they understand why no one wants to visit.
Aled Williams, 34, said the only places still busy are the banks or the Specsavers where he works.
He said: 'It's not what it was. There used to be a Woolworths, and M&S, a big tesco and there was a slow decline but then it became quite drastic and I understand why people don't want to come here.'
And while the lack of businesses was dispiriting, some had not lost hope in rejuvenation and Mr James said that he believed Reform could make a real difference.
'I think Reform will change things,' he said, 'The Labour council just don't care about you.
'I want things to go back to the way they were before.'
Former chocolate shop owner Mr Davies, put the town's changing political opinion down to failing business and drug addicts and said Llanelli had been getting more dilapidated for years.
He said: 'I think it got worse when I was growing up but it's been 20 years of nothingness.
'There's no footfall here, there's just empty units which looks so much worse.'
Daniel Philitonga, 16, and his mother Gina agreed with Mr Davies.
The college student, who moved to the town with his family in 2014 said there was simply nothing to do which lead people to just 'hang around'.
Daniel said: 'There's nothing for us to do - I never come in to town and my friends don't either.'
Ms Philitonga added that she wouldn't let her 12-year-old daughter out in town on her own and would be worried about her safety.
Shadows of Llanelli's thriving past can be found all over but remain sad reminders about how far it has fallen in to disrepair.
An art deco-style theatre which opened in 1938 as Wales’s first multiplex and is one of just 14 of the original Odeon cinemas left in existence in Britain.
But crumbling, with weeds sprouting from the gutters and boarded up windows, the historic building seems unlikely to open up again despite having been bought in 2014 by William Ratti, a former international records boss for £130,000.
Even the local shopping centre was so empty the upstairs floor had been shut off and signs read 'Exciting new shop coming soon' but the dusty shut up interior told a different story.
Mr Davies added that drug addiction was also a serious problem in the town.
He said: 'The addicts make a mess too and there loads of them and drugs and stuff. It's horrible. There's a real problem with cannabis being grown in empty shops.
'Why would you come here to visit - I'm embarrassed to say I'm from Llanelli.'
In fact Llanelli has such as problem with drugs that earlier this year the town was part of a wider sting operation in west Wales.
In May Pllumb Krosi, 34, was arrested after police found a 'large-scale cannabis farm' across three floors of a disused retail space in Llanelli town centre, according to Carmarthenshire News.
While in February 150 cannabis plants totalling £113,000 were found in a property in the town. Local Fabian Cela was charged with production of cannabis but pleaded not guilty.
The concern around drug use was a fear many of the locals had with Shauna Towend, 27, describing seeing broken needles in the local parks.
There's broken glass, needles, swearing,' she said, 'all while the kids are around, it's all the addicts.
'We can't even go to the park or walk though because of all the shouting and swearing, it's just a horrible atmosphere.'
A local Llanelli resident, who gave her name as Andrea, 61, said that the Labour council weren't tackling the problem of drug users in the right way and said instead of dealing with the issues, they'd just removed benches which had previously acted as a meeting point.
She told MailOnline: 'They've taken away the benches because of the druggies so now there's nowhere to sit down. You can't avoid them now, they're everywhere.'
The mother-of-one added that it's turning people away and now instead of people coming in to enjoy an afternoon of shopping, locals keep their visits short.
'People just come come in for 5-10 minutes instead of shopping for hours because there's nowhere to shop and nowhere to sit, it's all so run down and the shops are burnt out from fires.
One such example was a former Bright House shop which had been burnt through and was boarded up and fenced off.
Police have not provided an official explanation as to the cause but locals said it was part of a wider pattern of cannabis farms being burnt to the ground and it wasn't the first to have happened.
Andrea added the only things in the town centre are 'banks, charity shops and vape shops or betting places', but added that even 'they're all closing down because the rents are too expensive'.
One former bank, previously housed in an impressive Victorian building was up for rent but with weeds growing out of the historic stonework it didn't appear to be an attractive prospect.
Grandmother Erma, 81, added that she remembers being able to leave her children outside to play while she shopped in the indoor market but couldn't imagine doing that now.
She explained: 'It used to be bustling and the traffic was two way. There was a butchers and big shops and you could leave the children outside but now it's only busy three times a year for events and there's no shopping.
'I'm ashamed to say where we live - it's full of drug addicts, they've taken over.'
The pair said they weren't convinced anything would change soon but agreed that Labour had let them down.
But not everyone was convinced by Reform and Toby Jeffries, a 16-year-old college student said he didn't think Farage's new party was the answer although he conceded Llanelli was far from an ideal place to grow up.
He said: 'It used to be more thriving with the Sunday markets but now it's like something out of Soviet Russia. People don't shop here anymore they just go to Trostre (Retail Park).
'The town is full of rubbish, there's nothing to do and it's really anti-social.'
Despite all the frustrations there are reportedly plans to develop the almost-empty shopping centre in a luxury cinema, restaurant, music venue and function room worth £2million but residents are sceptical and will 'believe it when we see it'.
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