The first images of Llanelli‘s new market hall have been revealed — a two-storey building on Vaughan Street with 14 shops, a first-floor café, escalators and a frontage of green glazed brick.
The plans have been published for statutory pre-application consultation on behalf of Carmarthenshire County Council — a legally required step before a formal planning application is submitted — and confirm the indoor market must leave its current home by 2028, ahead of the demolition of the market and the Murray Street multi-storey car park above it.
The new hall would be built at 8–14 Vaughan Street, with the former Woolworths building now occupied by Bargain Buys, a vacant shop unit alongside it and a former pub at number 14 all demolished to make way for it. The council bought the three-storey former pub to enlarge the site.
Documents published with the draft application spell out why the move cannot wait. The existing 1970s market building contains reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete — RAAC — and despite major remedial works in 2013, the number of usable parking spaces above has been restricted ever since.
The 527-space car park was never designed for the weight of modern electric vehicles, the documents say, and repairs have become “increasingly cost prohibitive”. Around 224 drivers a day currently use it via the Murray Street ramp.
The council’s programme means the market must be emptied by 2028, allowing the market and car park structure to come down and clearing the way for the site’s redevelopment. Demolition funding was set aside in the county’s £146.7m five-year capital plan in January.
Today’s market provides around 3,664 square metres of trading space, with 17 retail units and 110 stalls, reached from the Stepney Precinct and by an underground walkway from Cowell Street. Those figures shaped the brief for the new building.
Inside the new hall, all 14 retail units would sit on the ground floor, arranged either side of an arcade-style route running in a straight line from the front entrance to the rear. Six of the units would open directly onto the street.
The first floor would hold the majority of the market stalls, along with a large café positioned to be visible from the entrance — a deliberate move, alongside placing the toilets upstairs, to draw shoppers up through the building.
Escalators would carry visitors between floors, with a second “down” escalator added at the main entrance during design development, alongside a lift and stairs.
The stalls themselves would share a consistent design of orange-framed steel with solid worktops and integrated sinks, set against black Crittall-style glazing on the shop units.
Outside, the buff brick building would be trimmed with green glazed brick around its ground-floor openings and entrance, beneath bilingual signage reading Neuadd y Farchnad Llanelli — Llanelli Market Hall.
The site borders the town’s conservation area and shares a party wall with a listed building, meaning listed building consent will be needed for some works. Grade I listed Llanelli House and the Grade II* St Elli Church are among its neighbours, and the design keeps the building to a similar height as those around it.
On the roof, solar panels would sit alongside a “blue-green” roof designed to hold rain and storm water and release it slowly, easing pressure on the town’s sewers, with hardy sedum planting to boost biodiversity. Rain gardens and benches are proposed at street level.
A second entrance at the rear would open the building up towards Market Street and Mincing Lane, with deliveries, servicing and accessible parking kept behind the building — leaving the pedestrianised Vaughan Street frontage free for shoppers.
Market traders have twice met the design team, most recently on 6 June, and their fingerprints are on the final scheme: concerns about stalls being hidden upstairs were answered with open voids, escalators and the upstairs café, while all retail was moved to the ground floor after traders objected to shops on the first floor.
Traders also said they were not confident in the scheme’s original signature orange colouring — prompting the switch to the green feature brickwork now shown in the images.
The building has been designed by architects AHR, with Port Talbot-based contractor Andrew Scott lined up to build it. The scheme has drawn debate in the town since it was announced, with Labour councillors calling for a trader-led vision and a mixed reaction of optimism and concern from residents and traders.
Anyone wishing to make representations about the proposals must do so by Friday 7 August. Comments can be emailed to mail@asbriplanning.co.uk or sent by post to Asbri Planning Ltd, Suite D, 1st Floor, 220 High Street, Swansea, SA1 1NW — with the full draft application documents and a response form available on Asbri Planning’s website.
