A LLANELLI man is claiming that a parking free for all in the town centre is affecting the elderly and disabled who wish to park to attend a doctor’s surgery.
Jonny Ruddall claims that a car park where once there were signs limiting the stay to one hour has been changed to free all day parking for the benefit of Carmarthenshire County County Council employees at the Ty Elwyn offices.
The car park opposite the Park Crescent doctor’s surgery was overflowing with cars when The Herald went to investigate; so much so that even a turnaround point for delivery vans and visitors to the surgery was blocked all day by cars parked awkwardly.
There are two bays outside the surgery and some bays allocated for the doctors. The Herald witnessed parking chaos as cars tried to squeeze in to the area even though all of the bays were taken. Some drivers simply left their cars blocking the entrance and exit.
The claim that all of these cars belonged to council workers may be slightly unfair and unfounded, as many we saw were walking to a council car park at Coleshill. We did speak to some council employees who had parked their cars there.
None of the employees wished to be named but they did say that as far as they knew it was a public car park and it was a case of first come, first served.
While they sympathised with people visiting the surgery, they also explained that they struggled for anywhere to park in the town. Many said that they also used the Coleshill council car park or the Town Hall car park but that there simply were not enough spaces.
The employees said that if they were forced to park at the multi storey car park they would lose a substantial chunk of their monthly earnings.
Asked what the solution could be they said that there needed to be more employee car parking space and more free parking for the town.
One employee said that she had faced verbal abuse from some local people when she parked her car at Park Crescent.
One elderly gentleman visiting the surgery said that he could never park anywhere other than in the resident’s permit bays as there was never a space at the car park opposite the surgery.
Jonny Rudall joined The Herald at the car park and he showed us the brackets, which once held the missing one hour parking sign.
Jonny said: “My Mum is elderly and she has to attend this surgery regularly. There is nowhere to park because these people take up the space all day. Why isn’t it being monitored? Why have the signs been removed?”
The Herald contacted Carmarthenshire County Council for a comment and Executive Board Member for Transport Cllr Hazel Evans said: “This is an off-street parking area and there are no parking restrictions. Any signs that were there were not enforceable.
“Traffic management officers are however seeking to regulate the area. This will be subject to formal consultation with statutory consultees, including the town council and the local member, as well as public consultation.”
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