A discussion on parking issues in Llanelli is always a great way to dampen any festive cheer. So here goes.
Council-owned car parks in Llanelli (I believe we have 11 of them in and around the town centre) are a central component in facilitating footfall in the town, with the parking charges often considered a key factor in visitors' decisions to shop here. The often expressed fear that higher charges are largely responsible for driving people away from the shops is, however, an exaggeration. In reality, Carmarthenshire has consistently offered much cheaper parking than in neighbouring Counties, and visitors have proven to be happy to pay if they are on a serious shopping trip.
Over the past ten years, various schemes specifically aimed to promote footfall at the most effective times have been introduced in Llanelli – e.g. free evening parking, free parking for up to 4 hours on Saturdays, reduced tariffs for under an hour's parking in town centres, etc.
And although charge increases in line with inflation have been provided for on various occasions, anticipated increases have at times been postponed, as was the case between 2000 and 2004, and following the onset of recession in 2008 when the planned increases were delayed for 1 year.
Since 2010, each New Year's Day has seen most rates rise 10p in the Council's car parks, keeping in line with projections made in October 2010. These projections apply only as far as January 2014, and future increases are currently under consideration. Although the charges remain lower than privately run parking lots and within reasonable distance of inflation, what does seem to have changed is the rationale for these increases. In contrast with the earlier goal of keeping charges low but raising them slightly to cover the costs of developing the parking infrastructure and improving car park security across Carmarthenshire, now the focus is on generating greater revenue from parking charges and meeting budgetary reduction targets.
This year, the Council announced that around £30million of savings must be made over the next three years. A public consultation on the budget cuts was launched in November with 51 proposals on how to achieve these savings. Among the proposed savings to the 'Technical services' annual budget of £35 million, is a potential revenue increase of £475,000 from parking-related changes. These include:
- the introduction of charges for ‘blue badge’ holders, affecting over 18,000 disabled drivers in the County and expected to raise £109,000 over 3 years;
- imposing workplace parking charges for County Council staff and councillors, set at a fixed £10/month fee;
- extended parking charges into evening hours from 6pm until 9pm;
- and overall increases to the parking tariffs, doubling the recent trend with 20 pence rises proposed for 2015-16 and 2016-17.
You can express your views on these proposals through the Council's online public consultation survey, which ends January 3rd.
Currently, visitors can benefit from free evening/overnight parking in Council-owned car parks from 6pm until 8am. This has important implications for the evening trade at Eastgate, and especially for the Travelodge hotel. The proposal to extend the Pay & Display hours to 9pm is still under consideration and may face stiff opposition in the coming months.
Here's how the tariffs for parking at Eastgate (formerly Island Place car park) have increased over the past 13 years. Note that long term parking, originally defined as 'up to 10 hours' and later as 'all day' parking, is no longer possible given the maximum limit of a 4-hour stay.
Parking charges for 2014,
Monday – Saturday (08:00 - 18:00):
1 hour £1.20
2 hours £1.60
3 hours £1.80
4 hours £2.00
And that's just about all the cheerless closure to 2013 that Tin Dragon will bring. Llanelli seems to be the only place in the UK experiencing stormy weather tonight, and the first two months of the new year are set to be rather cold, so there's little more I can say.
But where there's a will there's a way, even when it rains in Wales once again. For sure, many people will be out celebrating to ring in 2014.
Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during its first year of existence, it has been a highly demanding and rewarding experience to keep it up-to-date. I look forward to bringing you further posts in the weeks ahead.
Happy New Year to everybody, and may 2014 bring you much satisfaction, peace and good health.
And for those of you who will enjoy free overnight parking in Carmarthenshire tonight, please take care on the roads and DO NOT drive if you have been drinking.
