K Sharp are providing support to Gwraidd Cydweli / Smart Kidwelly group in this discovery phase to help realise the ambitions of Kidwelly Town Council in taking full advantage of Smart technologies for the benefit of the people in the town.
Kidwelly has spent the last few years as part of the Ten Towns initiative which aimed to encourage economic growth and recovery, following the Covid-19 pandemic, of rural towns across Carmarthenshire. As part of the Kidwelly Sustainable Economic Growth Plan (2021) published as part of this work, it was identified that Kidwelly could become a Smart Town, with the ability to collect data using sensors to gain insights to support its economic development. A Kidwelly Digital Place Plan (2022) was subsequently delivered, detailing the preparation of a Digital Action Plan to support the adoption of LoRaWAN in Kidwelly (2022).
K Sharp have applied our People Oriented Smart Town (POST) approach as an alternative to the more traditional technology focused approach.
This project has delivered a number of Stakeholder engagement workshops and activities, and has delivered discovery products to representatives of Kidwelly Town Council, community groups, Carmarthenshire County Council, and has been further shared with Trefi SMART / SMART Towns, and Welsh Government.
The document has been delivered in two forms, which suit different audiences (click links to open documents in new window):
There is also a Stakeholder Presentation pack that can be shared upon request. Please contact us.
Kidwelly Residents and Visitors have spoken - the online consultation has closed and whilst there is a lot to understand, there are already some takeaway messages we can learn from. See the image below for our immediate top 6!
A significant next step is for Kidwelly Town Council to create a specific Smart Kidwelly Committee to ensure democratic accountability and ownership of the outcomes. It is anticipated that this should be in place by the end of Q3 2024. Barry presented the outline in a 10 minute slot at their September meeting, we look forward to seeing what they decide.
The overall initial plan looks like the following:
If you are a Kidwelly resident, visit Kidwelly, and/or are involved in a business, then do get in touch, we are always keen to have your views and encourage participation. Keep your eyes open for future events too.
These are examples of past engagement "call to arms"
Below is an example of the posters and QR code linking for physical engagement.
