AN AMMANFORD art group, focusing on brightening up the town, have opened a new workshop to showcase local artists' work.

Ammanford Arts & Crafts Rhydaman have opened the doors to a new workshop in College Street.

Founder, Cheryl Glover explained: "The aim of the group is to help people to feel proud about the town, use their town and the local amenities and shops so that they are investing in their own and town and its facilities.

"I kept seeing empty shops around the town and I spoke to one of the landlords and they said we could use the shop rent free until he found a new tenant.

"I contacted a local arts group but they said no, so I thought that we will have it to do something instead.

"We have 14 members in this group, eight who work here as well and six who just display their work here.

"Anything made from the workshop will be reinvested into other projects to improve the town.

"It is is nice to be able to bring the creative people in the town together to give them the opportunity to showcase their work in this way.

"Though it all came about quite quickly. We actually only said we were definitely going to do it two weeks ago, it has been a bit of a whirlwind since then."

The arts and crafts workshop is just one of the projects the group has been working on to improve the town and make it more appealing to visitors.

Mrs Glover added: "We have got so many projects ongoing at the moment.

"We are now a community investment company with four trustees. The only reason we have done this is so that we can apply for grants to help us to do more things to improve the town.

"So far we have had a tidy our town litter picking day, and will hope to have another later this month.

"We have also got a group of gardeners who will be taking on areas of land around Ammanford to rejuvenate them and make them look a bit more welcoming.

"One area we are quite interested in is by the bus station so that when people come in on the bus it looks a bit more welcoming.

"We are looking to start up a film club as well.

"It is about people being a bit more proud of Ammanford."