The article, published under the headline “I’m embarrassed to be from here!” Fed up locals in once-bustling town blast endless boarded-up shops and drug addicts as they claim “Labour does not care about us,” features stark photographs of a struggling high street and quotes from residents expressing frustration with the town’s decline.
“You see people off their heads at 10am, taking drugs by the bins,” one resident told the Mail. “It used to be busy here. Now it’s empty, dangerous even.”
But Darkin, who leads Llanelli Town Council, responded swiftly, denouncing the piece as “a textbook example” of sensationalist journalism.
“There’s a certain kind of journalism that thrives on decay,” Darkin said. “It doesn’t seek to understand or uplift, only to provoke.”
He criticised the Mail’s approach: “Parachute in, snap a few photos of boarded-up shops, quote a handful of disillusioned voices, and fly out with a headline that confirms every outsider’s worst assumptions.”
The Bigger Picture
While acknowledging that Llanelli, like many post-industrial towns across the UK, faces “real challenges,” Darkin argued that the article’s portrayal was deeply reductive.
“To reduce our community to a caricature of ‘drug addicts and dereliction’ is not just lazy. It’s dangerous,” he said. “It feeds a narrative of hopelessness that serves only those who profit from division and despair.”
He pointed to the broader community beyond the troubled town centre — including volunteers, carers, small business owners, teachers, and young people striving to make a difference.
“It’s the people who stay and fight for their town, not those who drop in to sneer at it.”
‘Deliberate Distortion’ of Politics
A significant part of Darkin’s rebuttal was aimed at what he described as a politically misleading aspect of the Mail article — its implication that the town’s decline is the responsibility of the Labour Party.
“Let’s correct a glaring inaccuracy,” he said. “It’s not Labour that runs Carmarthenshire County Council. It’s Plaid Cymru.”
Darkin explained that while Llanelli Town Council — which is Labour-led — manages a £1.5 million community budget, the county council, run by Plaid Cymru, controls around £500 million in funding for infrastructure and services.
“To blame Labour for the state of the town centre is not only misleading, it’s a deliberate distortion of how local government works.”
The Mail article did not address this governance structure, instead framing Llanelli as an emblem of Labour’s neglect of working-class towns.
Call for Support, Not Scorn
Darkin argued that national media attention should focus on constructive support, not condemnation. He called for investment, long-term vision, and leadership rooted in local knowledge.
“What Llanelli needs isn’t more finger-pointing from London-based tabloids. We need investment, vision, and above all, hope,” he said.
Having served as Llanelli’s mayor and now campaigning for a seat in the Senedd, Darkin tied his defence of the town to his political mission:
“I’ve spent my life in Llanelli… I’ve seen what’s possible when we believe in our town and each other. That’s the spirit I want to take to the Senedd. Not to escape Llanelli’s problems, but to fight for the solutions we deserve.”
He ended with a clear message to those ready to write the town off:
“We don’t need outsiders telling us who we are. We know. We’re Llanelli. And we’re not done yet.”
While Darkin’s position strongly defends Llanelli and its community, it’s hard to ignore the fact that over the years, Llanelli as a town has been reduced significantly in its standing as a prosperous place to live.
As an embedded local news service, we have staff members who have spent most of their lives in Llanelli. As a result, we have a strong database of information to fact-check and verify every aspect of Llanelli’s past and current struggles:
Retail decline & empty storefronts
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Big-name closures: Aldi shut its Swanfield Place town‑centre branch on 27 April 2025, forcing residents—especially older or car‑less shoppers—to travel 1.5 miles to Trostre Retail Park for groceries.
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Other chains like Superdrug (2020), Wilko, and Sports Direct exited the town centre, relocating to Trostre or closing altogether.
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Empty properties: Iconic empty buildings such as the former Stuart Gallacher Carpet Centre have remained boarded and neglected for over a decade; derelict sites like Brynmefys estate and the fire‑wrecked Park Church also contribute to a perception of decline.
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Regeneration efforts: In response, Carmarthenshire County Council and the Welsh Government launched initiatives under the Transforming Towns programme, pledging grants to refurbish vacant units in Llanelli, among other areas.
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Additionally, a major retail investment came in late 2024, when Boyes opened its first Welsh store in the former Wilko unit, seen by local officials as a sign of renewed confidence.
Drug issues & anti-social behaviour
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County Lines and daily fear: In 2019, the BBC reported residents in the Seaside area described “daily” drug‑related crime, with some too scared to leave their homes. Councillor Sean Rees said people shouldn’t feel like they’re “living in fear of what is about to happen next.”
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Recent large‑scale cannabis seizures: In early 2025, Operation Mille saw multiple cannabis farms uncovered in Llanelli — including a large grow‑operation in a disused town‑centre shop on Vaughan Street with an estimated value of £326,000, and other homes converted into sophisticated cannabis factories.
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Organised trafficking: Historically, Llanelli has been a hub for Class A drug trafficking. A 2021 court case saw eight people jailed for supplying cocaine into the town; between 2014–2017, 28 members of a drug ring were sentenced across Llanelli/Aberystwyth after heroin and cocaine deadliness prompted Operation Ulysses. In 2016, a judge called heroin abuse in parts of Llanelli an “epidemic.”
Local perspective (from community posts)
Reddit commenters with lived or close experience paint a relatively consistent picture:
“Town during the day is usually quiet, except outside Boots where you’ll find the druggies waiting for their script and there’s always a stink of weed around.”
“Mostly just drugs from what I could see of the main street when I moved there….”
“They have been hollowed out by the decline of high street retail.”
Locals described the town centre as a “ghost town” after Aldi closed its Swanfield Place store on 27 April 2025, reducing easy access to affordable shopping and accelerating footfall loss.
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