A RANGE of Tidy Towns initiatives are set to go ahead in Carmarthenshire after the Welsh Government announced £943,833 of funding to help keep Wales Tidy.

The money will be spent on a total of 75 projects across Wales with the aim of helping communities improve their local area and tackle problems such as fly-tipping, vandalism, dog fouling and littering.

Amman Valley Trotting Club has been granted £2,500 to remove Japanese Knotweed along a footpath around the racecourse.

Local authority-led projects include £2,300 to clear litter, overgrown vegetation and invasive species from a neglected area of land in Cefneithin and turn it into community allotment plots.

There will also be county-wide scheme such as £3,000 to deliver recycling and litter prevention roadshows in primary schools and £25,000 to place skips for bulky waste and tyres across Carmarthenshire to prevent fly-tipping.

The funding has been welcomed by Mid and West Wales AM Rebecca Evans. She said: “I have seen first-hand the benefits that the Tidy Towns initiative can bring.

“Whilst litter-picking and installing bird boxes, I heard how these activities were restoring pride in the local area. I also heard how the project had created a new sense of community and combatted loneliness and isolation, and that neighbours who had never previously even spoken to each other were now firm friends as a result of the initiative.”

Alun Davies, the Welsh Government minister for Natural Resources and Food, said: “It is really important that we all feel proud of where we live. However, problems such as fly tipping, dog fouling and littering can have a negative impact on the lives of residents and effect the way we feel about our local communities.

“I am therefore delighted to approve funding for 75 projects across the country that will help tackle such problems head on and improve the local environments of people living in Welsh cities, towns and villages.”