People will be able to park for free at designated car parks in Carmarthenshire from Tuesday, the council has confirmed.
As part of a pilot scheme, shoppers will be allowed to park at certain car parks between certain times at no cost.
While motorists will still need to obtain a ticket from a machine, this will be provided without paying a fee.
Starting on Tuesday, September 1, the scheme takes over from the unlimited free parking that was on offer throughout the coronavirus lockdown up until the end of August.
The scheme itself was actually launched in October 2018 and was active up until March, when all pay and display requirements were suspended due to the outbreak.
Carmarthenshire Council says the reintroduction of the initiative will support town centres in the county as they continue to recover and emerge from an unprecedented period, and the idea is to provide a boost to those towns during quiet trading spells.
The offer is in addition to the five free parking days allocated throughout the county each year which provide more than 15,000 free spaces to complement organised events.
The free parking pilot applies to short stay spaces at the following council-run car parks at the following times:
Carmarthen town centre
Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 3.30pm and 6pm
Llanelli town centre
Mondays and Tuesdays, between 10am and 4pm
St Clears, Newcastle Emlyn, Llandovery, Llandeilo and Ammanford town centres
Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday, between 10am and 2pm
New pay and display machines which will allow people to pay using their card as well as with coins will also be in operation at a number of car parks from Tuesday.
“We’re pleased to reintroduce our free parking pilot which allows visitors to our main town centres park for free on certain days and times, to support our traders when they need it most,” said Hazel Evans, executive board member for environment at Carmarthenshire Council.
“We hope to continue this pilot for some time longer, based on feedback from our traders, and we will continue to monitor it to help inform our future parking strategy.”
