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Shop-owners' anger at parking change

11:41am Friday 4th July 2008

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CWMBRAN Shopping faces massive upheavals as centre management alter car parking in the town.

From August 4 many long-term parking spaces at Cwmbran Shopping will be scrapped in favour of a three-hour maximum stay. Any cars staying beyond the three-hour limit face a fixed-penalty fine.

At the Llewellyn Car Park, two of the three levels will be subject to the new limitations, with one remaining a long-stay area. Around half of the 3,000 parking spaces in Cwmbran will become short-stay only.

Cwmbran Shopping say the move is necessary to accommodate the high number of shoppers attending the precinct each week.

Centre Manager, Gerry Hutchings, said: "We need to ensure Cwmbran remains a place where shoppers can park easily."

Mr Hutchings said Cwmbran Shopping hosts between 85,000 and 90,000 cars every week, and he expects more as further amenities are added to the town centre later this year.

But the move has not been welcomed by everyone. Woolworth's Cwmbran Store Manager, Chris Bridgeman, said his colleagues were not looking forward to the planned changes.

"It's totally unnecessary. It will mean all the long-term spaces will be gone by 9 in the morning. For anyone starting at 10 or later it will be hard for them to find a space."

Mr Bridgeman said he suggested an alternative to centre management, but it was rejected: "I said to make short-term spaces from three hours to one or two hours and create a better flow of cars."

Laurena Carie, a stylist at Haircut 2000, is also against the plan: "It's going to have a massive impact on our customers, especially if they come in for colouring or perming because that takes time."

She added: "It's going to be hard on workers, where are they supposed to park?"

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Your Say YourSouth Wales Argus

Owain Vaughan, Newport Monmouthshire says...
12:00pm Fri 4 Jul 08

Oh dear, this is the end of Cwmbran New Town's only selling point!

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robswad, garn yr erw says...
12:04pm Fri 4 Jul 08

I bet the suit that made this decision has an all-day parking space within easy walking distance of their office and undercover to boot.

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tim, Magor says...
12:11pm Fri 4 Jul 08

It won"t stop the shoppers though, not like Newport!No 3 hours free there.

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OMEGA123, NEWPORT says...
12:24pm Fri 4 Jul 08

lets hope it stops all the imigrants who are slowly creeping up to cwmbran.....

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Simon, Newport says...
12:54pm Fri 4 Jul 08

Free parking is a fallacy... People are paying extra in fuel to drive to the car park...

There's no time limit for pedestrians or cyclists though - both of which are cheaper to use than cars!!!

Frankly, it won't be long before the free parking is reduced to 2 hours, and then charges will be introduced... Its the inevitable consequence of more people wanting to park...

Looking at it realistically, you have 3000 spaces and 20000 shoppers, many of whom will have a vehicle... I suppose the alternative would be to build a car park with 20000 spaces, but imagine how much space that would occupy, how much it would cost to build and maintain, etc.

I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying it, but nothing is new with that... Car drivers bring this upon themselves... We drive everywhere in increasing numbers and expect to be catered for free of charge... Something's got to give, and its the time limits and soon to be charges, that will bite people's change in habits.

The question is, where do people go next? Cwmbran's free parking is not going to last too much longer...

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Raymond Clouter, pontypool says...
12:56pm Fri 4 Jul 08

so much for cwmbran free Parking I new it was to good to be true, there is money to be taken from the parkers.

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Sarah, Cwmbran says...
1:26pm Fri 4 Jul 08

This move will just affect the smaller business owners as shoppers will just park up and go into Asda.

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js, cardiff says...
4:06pm Fri 4 Jul 08

Owain Vaughan wrote:
Oh dear, this is the end of Cwmbran New Town's only selling point!
Please list Newports sellings points please if they have any that is lol


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Dave on his soapbox, Casnewydd, Gwent says...
5:42pm Fri 4 Jul 08

.....surely Cwmbran is experiencing such numbers of shoppers because of the dire state od Newport....hopefully once all the developments are completed...and the new council administration realise there's a need for more parking....another multi-storey opposite the station instead of the skyscraper....the shoppers will return.

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reality checker, the bright side says...
6:23pm Fri 4 Jul 08

Simon wrote:
Free parking is a fallacy... People are paying extra in fuel to drive to the car park... There's no time limit for pedestrians or cyclists though - both of which are cheaper to use than cars!!! Frankly, it won't be long before the free parking is reduced to 2 hours, and then charges will be introduced... Its the inevitable consequence of more people wanting to park... Looking at it realistically, you have 3000 spaces and 20000 shoppers, many of whom will have a vehicle... I suppose the alternative would be to build a car park with 20000 spaces, but imagine how much space that would occupy, how much it would cost to build and maintain, etc. I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying it, but nothing is new with that... Car drivers bring this upon themselves... We drive everywhere in increasing numbers and expect to be catered for free of charge... Something's got to give, and its the time limits and soon to be charges, that will bite people's change in habits. The question is, where do people go next? Cwmbran's free parking is not going to last too much longer...
You try carrying a week's shopping for a family of four on a bicycle !

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clart, east side says...
9:16pm Fri 4 Jul 08

Let us all welcome Cwmbran to the real world, how long did you think free parking would last?? mu ha ha ha...........

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Alan, Torfaen says...
9:50pm Fri 4 Jul 08

Brilliant idea.This, hopefully will stop Shop staff parking all day long in the areas nearest to the main shops.If you cannot manage to complete your shopping within THREE hours you must either have more money to spend than sense, or spend most of your time gassing.Lets just hope the Town Centre owners actually monitor and act upon the three hour limit, which if they take as little notice as they do with the abuse of Disabled Parking spaces it will all be a joke.

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clart, west side says...
10:21pm Fri 4 Jul 08

best thing to is hoof over to cribbs cause way its way better shopping parking etc, just gotta pay the bridge on the way home, sure as hell beats the pants off cwmbran though :))

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Dan, Cwmbran says...
7:11pm Sat 5 Jul 08

I Work for cwmbran shopping and i know for a fact that all the shop staff park in lewellyn car park while all the town staff are made to park in glyndwr and the reason why they do this is to open up spaces to shoppers. Shop staff take up alot of spaces in lewellyn car park while the top of glyndwr is left empty this is the reason management brought in the new rules is so shoppers can park with ease therefore bringing more trade & revenue to the shops. The Shop staff dont like it cos theyre too lazy to walk a bit further from their cars each day & as for me i walk to work each day!! :-)

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pipsgmt, Cwmbran says...
1:47am Sun 6 Jul 08

How come all the comments about the free parking going, are coming from outside of Cwmbran. May be it's wishful thinking by Newport Ltd and co. I know of people from Pontypool that park in Cwmbran for free and take the Bus to Newport to work. Hopefully the 3hr plan will stop this. As a man I can do all our shopping for a week in 3hrs with the car. If I have any bits & bobs to do after that, I go on the bus for FREE.

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ianzemma, newport says...
9:49am Sun 6 Jul 08

js wrote:
Owain Vaughan wrote: Oh dear, this is the end of Cwmbran New Town's only selling point!
Please list Newports sellings points please if they have any that is lol
out of Newport or Cwmbran...I prefer Newport,It has a much better range of shops and it's more spread out,when the new shopping mall opens in newport,i'll make a bet cwmbran will become very quiet!

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Simon, Newport says...
11:57pm Sun 6 Jul 08

Reality checker. People existed before cars - all shopping once a week or so for families much larger than 4...

Fact is that modern society has driven us all to our cars and we are now paying the penalty for a Thatcherism... Actually saw video footage of her saying "get in your cars..." Now we are ALL in our cars, and moaning because our budgets, infrastructure and health service cannot cope with the consequences of this... Many people cannot see or understand life without a car, which demonstrates clearly just how bad things have become.

Life goes on, car or no car! Make do!

If you want to continue driving around everywhere, then you must accept what comes with that, which is increased charges together with an increasingly unfriendly infrastructural design... This is just a small part of what is to come if car usage continues to rise unchecked...

Thats a reality, an unpleasant one. Its not how do you fit the shopping on your bike? - But how do you cope without a car or fuel?

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Jazziedaz, Pontypool says...
3:14pm Mon 7 Jul 08

OMEGA123 you lose all credibility and are just a sad individual - immigrant has to Ms - just as ignorant does!

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Jonathan-27, Pontypool says...
5:55pm Fri 11 Jul 08

As a former worker in Cwmbran Town Centre. I see both sides of the argument. The Key issue though is can the town centre management guarantee security of cars and employees for the shops like Woolworths, Wilkinsons, Matalan who dont finish until 9/10pm at night and have to wander into a car park full of boy racers and drunken teens - not very nice!
Also why all the people screaming out about Cwmbran losing Free Parking They are not they are simply trying new solutions to gain more shoppers!

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Comments are closed on this article.

Laurena Carey who works in Cwmbran will become affected by the proposed parking changes Laurena Carey who works in Cwmbran will become affected by the proposed parking changes

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