Cymdeithas yr Iaith has welcomed Carmarthenshire County Council's launch of a consultation to create a new strategy to develop rural communities, but has called on people to contribute "fresh ideas".

In response to the announcement by Cllr. Cefin Campbell on the field of the Winter Fair at Llanelwedd, David Williams, deputy chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Carmarthenshire said
"We are delighted that the Council is looking for new ideas for a strategy to develop our Welsh-speaking rural communities as an important counter-weight to the regional Swansea Bay developments. But we believe that there is a real danger that people will merely trot out the traditional concerns about the destruction of local services, population movements etc. We call on everyone to engage in fresh thinking as to how we can positively develop our rural communities. Cymdeithas will be responding positively by putting forward a strategy based on "concentric circles" - by identifying what can be done in the inner circle of a village community, then what is best done in the circle of a cluster of villages, then the circle of the market town, then county-wide and then at the regional level. The unregulated open market will just attract all developments to the urban centres leaving rural communities as dormitories or retirement zones. But the people of Carmarthenshire can lead Wales by developing a strategy which sees the value of all these concentric circles and the interaction between them, and a new future can be forged for Welsh-speaking rural communities.”