Wales could soon have an eighth city, if a town in the west of the country gets its way.

A group in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, is planning to bid for city status for the town which has a population of around 35,000 people.

If successful, Llanelli would join Bangor, Cardiff, Newport, St Asaph, St Davids, Swansea and Wrexham.

David Darkin is from the Llanelli Chamber of Trade and Commerce who are spearheading the campaign.

He told Sky News this was the “latest in a series of initiatives” to promote the town.

“In recent years there’ve been various competitions and things to get a charter for city status, but the King has yet to put a charter out for any city statuses,” he said.

“We were hoping that given his long-standing connection with Carmarthenshire, because he has a home here, and the value he places on the Welsh language and the time he served as the longest-serving Prince of Wales, we’re hoping that it would be a fitting tribute to his time in that role to give city status to Llanelli.”

Cllr Darkin said city status would provide “an opportunity to put Llanelli in the spotlight”.

“It’s very easy for people to point at the negative things, you could do that about just about anywhere in the UK, but Llanelli’s got a lot going for it,” he added.

“We’ve got a global offer and a global reach and I’d like people to be able to see that and then hopefully it can attract inward investment and then employment opportunities.”

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If successful, Llanelli would follow in the footsteps of Wrexham – which only gained city status itself in 2022.

“Our chamber secretary has had conversations with somebody from there and they’ve been very helpful in talking about the process that they went through,” Cllr Darkin added.

“So we’re aware that it’s more of a journey than anything else, and this is the start of it.”

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Dame Nia Griffith MP told Sky News Llanelli needed to “be ambitious”.

“I very much welcome the bid for city status for Llanelli because I really feel it’s a way that we can bring people together, we can think about how we can improve and regenerate our town,” she added.

“It can be a real motivation for us to really make something of Llanelli.”

Organisers plan to officially launch the bid at the end of March.

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