Llanelli would have been the beneficiary of two Levelling Up Fund bids had they been successful, it has emerged. Carmarthenshire Council's applications for the UK Government funding were not among the 111 ones which shared £2.1bn of cash when the UK winners were announced last week.
A meeting of full council on January 25 was told that the authority had applied for Levelling Up Fund money to regenerate Llanelli town centre and also to improve transport links between the Pentre Awel health and wellbeing development, which is being built at Delta Lakes, the train station, and the town centre. Cllr Gareth John, cabinet member for regeneration, leisure, culture, and tourism, said there had been 525 applications for the second round of funding, meaning that just under one in five bids were successful.
Cllr John said: "We are naturally disappointed with the news particularly given the clear need, and the strength and the quality of the submissions, and the vast amount of time and effort invested in submitting the applications." He said the council had requested and been promised feedback.
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The authority was successful in the first round of Levelling Up Fund applications and secured nearly £17m to take forward the Towy Valley cycle path project between Carmarthen and Llandeilo and a share of nearly £20m for new town centre hubs in Carmarthen and Pembroke. Cllr John said no council had been successful in both rounds of funding and that four councils in Wales hadn't received any funding at all.
Carmarthenshire, he added, was second only to Cardiff among councils in Wales in the amount of money it had received over the two rounds to date. Swansea Council didn't receive any Levelling Up Fund money first time round but one of its four second round bids came up trumps – a £20m upgrade of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks and improved riverside links from the site to the city centre. The UK Government has said there will be a third round of Levelling Up Fund money.
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