LLANELLI: ‘Jewel in the crown’ park left to decay, says Labour councillor

There is no water in the duck pond at Parc Howard, no way into the bandstand, and no sign of Graham, the goose who lived on the pond’s island.

Cllr Shaun Greaney, the Labour member for Lliedi on Llanelli Town Council, calls the park the town’s “jewel in the crown” and says it has become “another unloved and uncared for park” under the Plaid Cymru-led county council.

He says money has gone into the Mansion and its museum while the grounds around them have gone backwards, and he is asking residents to sign a petition against any further cuts.

The Mansion’s museum reopened its ground floor in December 2023 after two years of refurbishment, with the first floor following in spring 2024, and the tower, roof and porch restored. Carmarthenshire County Council and Llanelli Town Council both funded that work.

What has gone from the park

According to the councillor, the Rose Garden was removed years ago as a saving, and the exotic birds and animals once kept by the park keepers went with it.

The bandstand is fenced off behind steel mesh and out of use. Cllr Greaney says it has been condemned.

In the playground, he says the zip wires need repair, the swings are worn out and the safety surfacing beneath them is holed.

“Residents in my ward who remember the park in its heyday are appalled to see its current state,” he said.

The goose that had to be rehomed

Cllr Greaney says the duck pond was kept going for years by volunteers from the Parc Howard Association, who topped it up themselves.

The association was then blocked from refilling it, according to the councillor, and the pond has since run dry.

That left Graham, a goose he says lived on the island in the middle and was well known to children in the ward, without water.

The bird has since been moved elsewhere, which Cllr Greaney says was done for its own safety. He called it “a decision reluctantly taken by the Parc Howard Association, for which I blame the county council”.

The summer the paddling pool nearly did not open

The councillor says Llanelli Town Council has been putting its own money into the park since 2017, funding improvements on top of the county council’s budget.

He says basic maintenance has slipped anyway, and points to last summer’s paddling pool as the example.

Repairs were flagged in February, according to Cllr Greaney, and the pool’s opening was then pushed back by weeks in the middle of the school holidays.

“If the town council had not aggressively intervened, the county council would have likely closed the popular attraction down altogether,” he said.

This year it opened on time, on 20 July, alongside the town’s other free paddling pools.

The 1912 conditions, and a warning from the local paper

Sir Stafford Howard and his wife Katherine paid £7,750 for the estate in January 1912, then leased it to Llanelly Urban Council for 999 years at £5 a year.

The conditions were set out in advance. The grounds were to be laid out by a competent gardener as a people’s park. The mansion was to become a museum or otherwise serve the public. And everything was to be kept in order for the purpose it was given.

Sir Stafford fixed the opening for 21 September 1912, his first wedding anniversary, with the work to be finished by then.

The council accepted with gratitude. The Llanelly Mercury was more cautious, writing three days later that it hoped the conditions would be “sufficiently safeguarded in the deed of transfer, so as not to allow any quibbling over matters in the future”.

The park opened on the day set, with tennis courts and a bandstand.

That bandstand is part of why Parc Howard sits on the Cadw register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in Wales. The register description picks out its early twentieth-century bandstand, gates and railings, sunken garden and mature plantings.

What the petition is asking for

The petition is called Save Our Ancient Park, or SOAP. Paper forms will be available in Llanelli shops, with an online version to follow.

“I urge all Llanelli people to sign the petition. This is our park,” Cllr Greaney said. “It’s a great opportunity for the county council to prove it is listening and to put right its mistakes.”