FREE parking on Fridays and Saturdays, a bigger open-air market and an array of flower baskets.

These are just some of the suggestions put forward by Ammanford traders in a desparate bid to attract more shoppers into the town.

During a meeting at the Miners’ Welfare, traders claimed footfall in Ammanford on Saturdays had been halved in the past three years.

And they urged Carmarthenshire county council “to do their bit” by helping to encourage people to spend more money in Ammanford.

Jeweller Ernest Brooks was among several traders who felt that the local authority’s free parking scheme in December had not been sufficiently advertised.

Proposing free parking on Fridays and Saturdays, as well as after 3om on other days, he said: “The town is fuller on Fridays and on Saturdays people come in and stay in.

“If people knew they wouldn’t have to pay to park they’d spend more in the shops in Ammanford, rather than getting back in their vehicles and driving off.”

Butcher Martin Jones felt the idea was worth pursuing. “It’s worth a try, otherwise we are going to sink,” he added.

Mr Brooks also suggested that a “bigger and better” open-air market could be held “from the top to the bottom”

of Quay Street once a month.

Fellow trader Sid Whitworth described the local authority’s free parking scheme in December as nothing more than “a gimmick”.

He added: “We should accept nothing less than the return of free shortstay car parking all day – the loss of it was a real kick in the teeth.

“At the piazza, which cost £500,000, the council have replaced grey slabs and bollards – with grey slabs and bollards.

“I hardly think people are going to come into town to admire our shiny new bollards.”

Other proposals to be forwarded to the county council include awnings to protect market shoppers from the elements, the provision of more hanging baskets supported by traders and a “re-designed” Big Day Out in July.