Car crash delays carnival parade and Sandy Road residents say ‘enough is enough

POLICE were called to a single vehicle collision on Sandy Road on Friday (Nov 19).

Dyfed-Powys Police said: Dyfed-Powys Police received a report of a single vehicle road traffic collision on Sandy Road, Llanelli, at approximately 5pm on 19th November.

Officers attended as the vehicle had collided with a wall and assistance was required with recovery. The driver was not injured and the vehicle was recovered at approximately 6:20pm.

The carnival was due to make its way along Sandy Road at 6.15pm but was delayed while police dealt with the incident and the vehicle was recovered.

It is one of a number of accidents, which have destroyed property along the busy road over the years.

Seasoned campaigner Ray Jones said: “I remember a car going into the railings near the entrance of the traveller’s site. Very many decades ago a HGV lorry ploughed into a home next to the hair salon. A single decker bus ploughed into the parlour of 149 Sandy Road. Some have asked ‘what is the point in building a front wall. Just to wait until the next vehicle crashes into it.

“We asked for the traffic lights to be taken away and for them to place a mini roundabout to give the traffic coming from town (east) the right of way.

“Despite the number of incidents there have been no traffic calming measures put in place and now the council propose to take away the frontage of a number of homes at the Sandpiper roundabout end of the road in order to aid traffic coming from Llanelli to turn right into a new housing development. We as residents are saying ‘enough is enough’.”

Residents have criticised the plans by the council and say that it would increase pollution for those whose front gardens have been removed. The suggestion is that there are three options to ease traffic by using existing right turns along the West End of Llanelli which can link to the Stradey Housing Estate. Ray Jones claims that he has already sounded out the idea with landowner Patrick Mansel-Lewis. Ray said: “For the sake of 20 yards of tarmac they are taking away the fronts of people’s homes on Sandy Road. It is madness. Could it be that because  the mother of our local politician lives on one of the proposed easement routes that this option has been ruled out”  

They have taken to joining larger campaign groups like Mums For Lungs in the hope that they can get the council and politicians to take action and find a solution to the pollution. Calls for a road circumventing Sandy Road have been dismissed by the local MS.

The moratorium on Welsh Government spending on new roads has impacted severely on these and other residents in different parts of Wales where traffic chaos and pollution are blighting their lives. Meanwhile the Welsh Government ministers are sending a clear message about what the future holds for many in more stringent measures to control the amount of pollution emitted by goods coming into Wales from other parts of the world, a move to ban wood burning stoves, suggestions that we may be only able to eat locally produced meat and only have out of season fruit and vegetables as a luxury.  There has been plenty of reaction to the proposals for a greener future for Wales with some pointing at double standards from the Welsh Government and local authorities who allow developers and industrialists to continue on a different set of rules.

Carmarthenshire County Council recently provided details of a spend of £550,000 on electric vehicle charging points across the county, which they said were part powered by the National Grid. Some of the residents of Sandy Road say they take no comfort in seeing the huge spend on green energy while they suffer ill health through traffic pollution. With more developments planned along what the council term as the Gold Coast, residents claim they face a different picture of the Gold Coast on a daily basis.

Cartoonist Mark Jennings kindly gave his interpretation here.

©Mark Jennings