Blog Villain Bridgend Welsh Labour Council: When Even Offering Something For Free Is For The Most Part Worthless

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Last time I spoke about Bridgend Welsh Labour Council, I enquired whether they had reached a situation where the consequences of years of their urban mismanagement of Bridgend Town had meant that they just quite simply lost control. Whether they had no strategy for it's future. Whether essentially it was being run on a crisis management basis.

Well I noticed on their Twitter account yesterday that they, along with a group which are trying to regenerate Bridgend Town were offering that the first hour of the relatively newly built (November) Rhiw car park would be free.

Now my instant reaction was to say "well that's encouraging". But when I said instant I meant instant. For what I soon realised was that they were indulging in media spin.

The car parking charges are one of the issues that have so damaged the town and discouraged people from visiting with a consequent damage to local shops and amenities. The nearby outlet centre's Macarthur Glen's car park is free, as are those in Maesteg. Of the other main town in the area Porthcawl, whilst there are charges there are also many places to park for nothing.

What the tweet did not offer was a similar deal for the other car parks in the town run by the council. Why? Why focus on one car park in the town and not the others? It lacks a coherent strategy. Especially as most people would just park in the nearby ASDA's anyway. A car park with a three hour free parking limit.

And how exactly does a "first hour free" car parking encourage people to wander around the town? Relax with a coffee or marvel at the empty retail wrecks with which talking generally the council should bare some responsibility for? What a "first hour free" car parking charge will do is to make people drive to the car park, do one quick targeted shop, and drive out again. Hardly something that will bring urban renewal to the town.

Incidentally as a quick aside the council's Twitter account also revealed that it's also on Instagram. Spoiler alert: You won't find pictures of the many empty shops in Bridgend Town on that account.

What Bridgend Labour Council should do is make all of it's car parks free for at least a three hour period. That way the town could benefit a lot more from it's visitors. It would not be a quick fix to the urban tragedy that is Bridgend Town thanks to Labour.

But it would be a start.

Until the next time.