A HEALTH board has withdrawn a planning appeal after proposals for a health and well-being centre featuring a drug and alcohol support service were turned down in Llanelli.
Hywel Dda University Health Board said alternative sites were now being looked at and that it believed a health and well-being centre was essential for the town.
The original plan was to create the health and well-being centre at an office building on Traeth Ffordd, North Dock, but many residents were worried about the potential for anti-social behaviour because the facility would include a relocated Dyfed Drug and Alcohol Service (DDAS). They also claimed there were water safety risks due to the building’s proximity to the dock itself.
Dyfed-Powys Police supported the proposal and it was recommended for approval by Carmarthenshire Council’s planning department, which said alternative sites had been considered. A planning report which went before the council’s planning committee in 2023 said the six services proposed at the Traeth Ffordd building included a psychological team to help young people who’d experienced traumatic events, and another to help people improve their diet and physical activity.
A majority of committee members turned the application down, with one objector repeatedly saying, “Shame on you,” to the four councillors who’d voted in favour of it.
The health board, which was acting on behalf of a regional area planning board tasked with overseeing drug and alcohol services, appealed the refusal decision and a hearing was due to get under way at the end of this month.
However, the office building has recently been sold to a third party – a domestic abuse support charity called Threshold DAS – which hopes to move in on completion before the end of summer.
The health board said earlier this month it was considering its options in light of this, and Dr Ardiana Gjini, its director of public health, has now confirmed the appeal has been shelved.
She added: “However, we believe a new health improvement and well-being centre in Llanelli is essential to the health board’s strategy of shifting services from treating illness, to promoting and supporting wellness, working with partners, patients and public to enable our community to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and tackle the leading causes of preventable ill health and early death.
Therefore, our search for a new premises will continue and we are currently looking at other sites.”
Carmarthenshire councillors Sean Rees and Louvain Roberts, who represent Llanelli’s Glanymor ward, have welcomed Threshold DAS’s impending move to the Traeth Ffordd building and had urged health chiefs to call off the appeal.
Llanelli Town Council leader David Darkin described the latest developments as a “partial victory” as he said DDAS needed to relocate from its current town centre premises.
Cllr Darkin called on the health board, police and county council to work together to find a suitable new home for it.
He said DDAS provided a “vitally important” service and was “a fantastic facility that does a lot of good” but that the planning committee had, in his view, “quite rightly” rejected the planning application.
