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CARMARTHEN: Wilko demolition pushed back to next year as council says a tenant “of significant benefit to the town” is in talks

The former Wilko in Carmarthen is not coming down next month after all.

Carmarthenshire County Council says demolition of the Friars Park store, which its own notice pencilled in for 26 October, is now expected to start early next year because “the wider programme has since changed”.

And for the first time it has said who it is talking to about the site afterwards, or nearly. The council says it is in commercial talks with interested parties, “including negotiations with a prospective tenant which would be of significant benefit to the town”. No deal has been signed, and it will say more “when the Council is in a position to do so”.

Welsh Government picks up the whole bill

The demolition will be paid for in full by the Welsh Government through its Transforming Towns programme, the council says, at no cost to the county.

The council’s case for knocking the building down is unchanged. Surveys when it bought the lease found the store needed major work before anyone could move in, with the roof alone put at around £1m. The council decided that was not value for money and that the building had “reached the end of its usable life”.

Clearing the site would also let it rebuild the car park behind, which it says “no longer meets modern standards”.

Cabinet member for regeneration Cllr Hazel Evans said: “With Welsh Government fully funding the demolition, and essential roof works alone estimated at around £1 million, demolition is the most cost-effective way to unlock the site’s potential and prepare it for a productive long-term use.”

She said the council welcomed public interest in the site and shared “the community’s view that its future development must support the wider regeneration of the town”.

Buzz Parks offered a different building

The statement is the council’s first public answer to the “Jobs not rubble” campaign that gathered outside the store on Friday, where trampoline park firm Buzz Parks said it had been trying to take the building on for more than a year and heard very little back.

The council’s answer is not the building. It says that following an approach on Buzz Parks’ behalf, it has offered to discuss “alternative potential opportunities within the town” with the firm’s owners, and would help broker talks with private landlords where it does not own the premises.

Buzz Parks had proposed a trampoline park, climbing, soft play, a zip wire and a sports bar in the old store, and said it could bring 2,000 to 2,500 families a week into the town centre.

Welsh Government minister Siân Gwenllian, whose department holds the Transforming Towns money, called it “a welcome step forward for Carmarthen town centre”. “Clearing this site is about more than demolition,” she said. “It’s about creating the conditions for productive, long-term use that supports the town’s continued regeneration.”

From Tesco to Wilko to an empty shell

The store closed with the rest of the Wilko chain in October 2023, and the council bought the lease the following March, already owning the freehold. Cabinet approved the demolition in July without debate, and site notices went up in August with the 26 October date the council has now dropped.

What replaces it is still not public. The council says it will give an update “as and when developments with interested parties progress”.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

CARMARTHEN: ‘Jobs not rubble’ campaigners want the old Wilko saved for a trampoline park
Friday’s protest, and what Buzz Parks says it would put in the building.

CARMARTHEN: Demolition date set for the former Wilko
The August site notices that gave 26 October.

CARMARTHEN: Council to demolish former Wilko and car park built over tomb of Henry VII’s father
The July cabinet decision, the money and the history under the site.

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