Free Llandudno car park will be pay and display

A free Llandudno car park will be converted to pay and display, following a decision by Conwy’s planning committee. 

Ticket machines and CCTV cameras as well as signs will now be installed at the car park leased by Llandudno Football Club from Conwy County Council. 

The club claim fans are struggling to find space at the car park on Builder Street West and say they hope parking meters will increase the number of available spaces. One issue causing persistent problems, according to club officials, is heavy goods vehicles blocking access. 

At a Conwy planning committee meeting, councillors heard how the application had been backed by Llandudno Town Council. But Conwy County Council had received 20 objections, mostly relating to nearby workers using the car park on a daily basis.. 
Planning officers heard how Natural Resources Wales and the council’s flood-risk team and highways departments had no objections. 

But Cllr Nigel Smith did, proposing a condition was added to only charge football fans on match days.  
“This application seems fairly innocent in itself, but Builder Street, as it says in the report, is pretty much – you can’t park there,” he said. 
“These businesses and their employees rely partly on this parking area. So I would be very reticent to approve this without any conditions. So I can understand where the football club comes from. They want to be able to make some money, and I get that, but I think really they should only make money on match days.” 

He added: “I would like to suggest that we approve the application but only for use on match days to allow the workers of the county to use the council asset to access their work and park safely.” 

But head of law and governance Rhun ap Gareth said the private car park was already used as a car park. He said it was only the look of the ticket machines and CCTV cameras that should be reflected in the vote, adding Cllr Smith’s objection would not stand up to an appeal. 
“It is not about the use of the car park,” he said. 
“It is about how the ticket machines look. I appreciate there are lots of people here objecting, but really they are not material planning considerations. It is about an application between a private landowner and people who use that for their parking.” 
Cllr Nigel Smith responded: “This is a community asset owned by the people of Conwy, and by approving this, we’ll probably be excluding them from using it. It’s a very difficult one and probably one I can’t support.” 
Cllr Chris Cater proposed councillors voted in favour of the officers’ recommendation to approve, and Cllr Peter Lewis seconded it. 
“I think I’ll go with Llandudno Town Council because the town councillors will know this area well, said Cllr Cater.  
“And if the town council supported the application, then I think I’m happy to fall in line with them.” 
Ten councillors voted in favour. Cllr Trevor Stott voted against whilst Cllr Nigel Smith and Cllr Pauline Heap-Williams abstained.

By Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter