Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

Free parking at Llanelli’s Murray Street Multi Storey car park is supporting traders in the town centre. The free parking, designed for shopping convenience, is for four hours after 10am in the morning to prevent spaces being occupied and blocked for the day by office staff. The ground floor of the multi storey car park serves as the home for Llanelli busy indoor market. Fruiterer and florist there, Will Seward, said: “We have had the free parking regime since November last year but despite publicity shoppers did not seem to be aware of it. He said: “I asked if a large sign could be put up at the entrance to the car park and it happened overnight this week and it has already had an impact. “It just goes to show that free parking does influence shoppers habits so it is a big thank you to the county council for this concession and to have acted so quickly with the sign. It is a big help to traders in these highly competitive and financial strained times.” The first phase of a £1.7mill...

Work on giving Llanelli’s Murray Street Multi Storey car park a makeover worth £1.75 million has started. The work will be carried out in seven phases over a year to limit as much as possible the loss of parking spaces as each of the seven levels is refurbished. In the first phase next week there will be the immediate loss of 135 spaces of the 527 in the car park as level six and seven are the first to be tackled. This is not thought to cause any problems because electronic occupancy registering shows that the multi storey car park is infrequently more than half full other than during the Christmas season. There will be a reducing impact as each of the remaining levels is tackled with the loss of between 94 and 41 spaces. The works include the partial covering of the structure with eye mesh cladding, new lifts, new lighting, bay and lane markings, concrete repairs and treatment to the entrances to the St Elli Centre. The works will give the 40-year-old car park an extended life o...

The legal requirement of a Traffic Order to enable free parking at Llanelli Multi Storey Car Park at 10am means its introduction could be delayed until January, 2012. In the interim period there will be free Christmas parking across the county at all car parks for the period between December 9th and 24th. Drivers have been confused by early publicity about the proposed Murray Street multi story car park free parking. Many believe, quite wrongly, free parking is already in place. The executive board of Carmarthenshire County Council had approved the concession of free parking at the Multi Storey Car Park from 10am every day once the Traffic Order was in place. This will be clearly advertised at the entrance to the car park. The Traffic Order is required because of the pay and display regime that will remain in place before 10am. This is necessary to prevent office z workers taking up the spaces for shoppers the free parking are designed to benefit. Anyone found parking before the Traffi...

Llanelli's 41-year-old multi-storey car park in Murray Street is having a £1.7million facelift. The reclading of the six-storey car parking space for 525 cars right at the heart of Llanelli together with new lighting will ensure the car park fits in with the major renovations going on all about Llanelli’s Town centre. The refurbishment is costing more than 20 times what the original car park cost to build. A planning application has recently been submitted for the first phase of the scheme which involves the removal of the existing concrete parapets and their replacement with anodised expanded aluminium mesh cladding emulating the effect at the multi storey car park at St David’s Shopping centre, Cardiff. Phase 1 is planned to be complete in mid 2012 in time for the exciting £25-million East Gate opening which will be following on before Christmas next year. The second phase will start later in 2012 and will involve repairing the damaged concrete, waterproofing, repainting the bays...