Disabled OAP cries foul over Ammanford parking bay 'blow' (From South Wales Guardian)

Disabled OAP cries foul over Ammanford parking bay 'blow'

1:00pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in Ammanford news

A DISABLED Ammanford pensioner has hit out at what she says is a lack of suitable parking bays in the town centre.

Sylvia Locke, 74, of Maesyrhaf, successfully campaigned for disabled parking bays at the rear of Hall Street several years ago.

But she says she was shocked to discover on a recent shopping trip that the bays no longer existed.

“I can’t understand how this has happened,” she told the Guardian. “The county council is supposed to be trying to attract more people into the town centre, yet the loss of these bays has certainly stopped disabled people from coming into town.

“Those bays were very useful as they were right by the shops – nowI’m having to try to find a parking bay up in Wind Street. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you often get able-bodied motorists parking their vehicles in bays reserved for disabled drivers - when you ask them to move you often get a mouthful of abuse.”

A county council spokesman said pay and display charging was introduced in Hall Street car park where parking had previously been “disorganised”, affecting access for businesses to the rear of Quay Street.

“No loading and unloading restrictions were introduced on the access highway between Hall Street car park and Heol Wallasey to enable the safe and free passage of traffic between the car park and the on-street portion residents’ parking zone and Heol Wallasey,”he said, adding there were 16 disabled parking bays in the St Margaret Street car park, 10 at Carregaman, three in Hall Street and four at Wind Street.