Popping into Mumbles for a pint of milk or a stamp could get cheaper, after the council said it would look at a half-hour rate in the village’s car parks.
An hour in the Mumbles car parks costs £2.50, Mumbles councillors told full council last Thursday. That’s two and a half times the £1 an hour charged in the council’s city centre car parks.
Cllr Andrew Stevens, the cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said he was “happy to look at” a 30-minute tariff. No council car park in Swansea has one at the moment, including in the city centre.
The city centre car parks also cap a full day at £5, with £2 all day on Sundays. When the council took over the old NCP car parks in July and brought them into line, Cllr Stevens said Swansea had “some of the cheapest parking fees anywhere in the country”.
‘There isn’t in Mumbles’: councillors’ case for a cheaper half-hour
The question came from five Mumbles councillors: Hannah Williams, Will Thomas, Angela O’Connor, Lyndon Jones and Mark Tribe. They said the gap put an unfair burden on residents, hurt local businesses and was making on-street parking worse.
Cllr Will Thomas said other district centres such as Gorseinon and Morriston had somewhere to park for free. “There isn’t in Mumbles,” he said.
He said even £1 an hour in one car park would let residents pop down to post a letter, buy milk or have a coffee.
Cllr Angela O’Connor said a cheaper half-hour for residents was all Mumbles councillors had been asking for, for years, and that they were now “four years down the line”.
Cllr Hannah Williams said paying £2.50 just to go to the post office was “extortionate”. She added that popular tourist spots in Cornwall and Pembrokeshire charge nowhere near as much.
£1 an hour in the city, full car parks in Mumbles: Cllr Stevens’ answer
In his written answer, Cllr Stevens said the £1-an-hour city centre rate was a special discount to bring footfall and business back into the city centre.
Mumbles car parks are very well used, he said, and the real problem there is space. He told the meeting there were nearly 200,000 parking transactions across the Mumbles car parks.
He put the demand down to the council’s own investment on the seafront, including the sea defences and new play areas, and said cutting the price for an hour would not fix the shortage.
He said the limited waiting bays in Mumbles were free for up to three hours, and that the residents’ rate was £2 an hour, not £2.50.
Council leader Rob Stewart: foreshore car parks, and ‘consequences’
Council leader Cllr Rob Stewart said the Mumbles car parks were foreshore car parks, aimed more at tourists than locals, with seasonal rates.
A cheaper winter rate agreed with local councillors was meant to draw people in out of season, he said. Discounting in the summer would gain nothing, because the car parks are full and there is nowhere else to put the cars.
He said the deal “can be looked at but it will come with consequences”.
He rejected a claim that meetings had been cancelled, calling it inaccurate, and he and Cllr Stevens both said they were happy to meet the Mumbles councillors.
Spaces lost and promised along Mumbles Road
Spaces have been tight since the sea defence works. The council has promised to bring back around 20 spaces on the old tennis courts on Mumbles Road, beside three new padel courts.
Mumbles Action Group has argued for a lido there instead. Its administrator, Michael Eames, puts what Mumbles pays in parking charges at around £5m.
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