Major Changes Ahead On The Brecon Landscape

Photo © Doris Kays Kraushaar

The Cathedral and market town, population 7,500, and nestling below the Brecon Beacons, highest mountains in south Wales, is about to unveil sweeping changes: its first shopping mall, a new 400-seater theatre on the banks of its canal, a separate supermarket development and a controversial new road system, which opponents claim will wreck its rural charm.

Plans unveiled for an inner relief road which will take much of the traffic out of the centre of Brecon and pedestrianise the shopping centre have spawned a concerted campaign by protesters against what is seen as wrecking the very appeal that is Brecon.

Against this background, Boots, the family chemist group, is to open Brecon's first shopping mall, and is attracting new clothing, shoe and magazine companies to the town. Boots has spent £4m ($6m) over the last 20 months in building 16,500 sq ft of retail floor space in a prime area of the town - increasing shopping space by 40 per cent. The 15 new shops and a community centre should be in place by Christmas. Boots claim the shops will boost spending, currently running at £20m ($30m), by a further £9m ($13.5m).

Four supermarkets are currently displaying plans for a separate supermarket development which Cllr Marilyn Robers, chairman of a working party claims is one of the most important developments and will strengthen the vibrancy of the town.

Brecon has a long and well established history of professional theatre dating pre-1700. An interesting feature of the town's theatrical history is that a number of premises used for professional performances are still standing and the town was also home to the internationally renowned actress Sarah Siddons, whose name is commemorated in a drinking house in the main street. Proposals for an £8m ($12m) theatre at Brecon's canal basin met opposition, but as it nears completion its opponents have become muted. Its supporters claim that Brecon will once again become a mecca for international theatrical and musical stars.

The last straw for many is the plan to move Brecon's livestock market to the outskirts of the town. Traders fear farmers wives will be drawn away from the shopping area and the economy of the town will be damaged - but they said that 15 years ago when the Brecon by-pass was built, and were proved wrong.