Powys County Council needs to come up with a coherent economic recovery strategy for Powys and stop introducing contradictory policies, according to the Powys Welsh Lib Dem – Green opposition group on the council.

The council’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Highways, Cllr Heulwen Hulme, has refused the Welsh Lib Dem – Green and other opposition groups’ request to introduce a period of free parking for all cars using the council’s car parks. The opposition councillors say this is needed to encourage people to visit and shop in Powys’s market towns, and to compensate for the loss of on-street parking space now being removed to ensure social distancing. Under pressure on the issue from across the council’s membership, Cllr Hulme says the council will instead provide a few free-for-one-hour spaces in car parks.

Welsh Lib Dem – Green Group Leader, Cllr James Gibson-Watt, said:-

“The County Council is running a #SupportLocalPowys campaign to help put our market towns back on their feet as the Covid-19 restrictions are eased, which we strongly support, yet is not even providing one hour’s free parking across our car parks. The provision of a few one-hour-free spaces, the equivalent of just 50% of the lost on-street spaces, is simply not enough. The failure to agree to a more generous provision of free parking runs directly against the Council’s stated ambition to stimulate the local economy.”

“The Council needs to quickly develop a comprehensive economic recovery strategy that is coherent, in which Cabinet Members do not come up with policies that contradict each other. This strategy must concentrate on stimulating local footfall and activity to sustain not just local businesses but our cultural venues and visitor attractions when they are able open again. It must also involve extensive consultation with local businesses and communities. At the moment the Council’s response has been piecemeal and has tended to by-pass local councils and businesses. We have to change that and quickly.”