CARMARTHENSHIRE: Free hour agreed for every council car park, and the towns’ free parking days are gone

Every council car park in Carmarthenshire will offer the first hour free, after the county’s cabinet signed off its new parking strategy on Monday.

The free hour applies per visit across all 67 council-owned car parks, and the charges that follow it will be frozen for three years.

But the free parking days towns have used for Christmas shopping and events are gone, with the cabinet removing them despite its own scrutiny committee recommending they stay.

In Llanelli and Carmarthen town centres, drivers will pay £2 for two hours, £3 for three or £4 for all day once the free hour is up.

In Ammanford and the county’s rural towns, it is £2 after the free hour for up to three hours, or £2.50 for all day.

Discounted tickets for stays of two days or more are also part of the package, aimed at regular town centre users.

No start date has been announced. As we reported last week, new parking orders are needed before any tariff changes take effect.

Cllr Edward Thomas, cabinet member for transport, waste and infrastructure, said: “The revised off street parking strategy will provide a simple, fair and accessible system for parking across Carmarthenshire, which includes an hour of free parking per visit.

“By providing an hour of free parking, we are making it easier for residents and visitors to access our town centres and rural communities, whether they are shopping locally, visiting businesses, attending appointments, accessing public services or supporting local attractions.”

The free days scrutiny wanted kept

The council says its review found a significant need for short-stay parking, with the free hour meant to encourage more frequent visits to town centres and support for local businesses.

That matches the evidence behind the plan: number plate surveys at ten car parks last summer found stays of up to an hour were the most common.

The removal of the town council free days ends an offer of five days a year that towns could use as they wished, often around Christmas, with extra December dates agreed in past years.

When the strategy went before the Place, Sustainability and Climate Change scrutiny committee in July, councillors recommended keeping the free days and consulting town and community councils. The cabinet report argued the free offers introduced in 2018 had “little or no measurable impact on town centre footfall”, and listed removal as the only option.

Cllr Thomas said the approach “recognises the important role that our town centres play in the local economy and will help encourage increased footfall, support local businesses and create vibrant, accessible places for people to live, work and visit”.

The preferred package was modelled to add around £199,600 a year to the council’s parking income.

That money is earmarked for signs, lines and resurfacing, more electric vehicle chargers, and number plate recognition barriers so drivers pay only for the time they stay.