On the fringes of Swansea city centre, a hop away from the trendy Uplands area of Swansea, is a thriving little community packed with shops, restaurants, cafes and all manner of other businesses.
Sketty has been quietly getting on with the business of serving its local populace everything from paint to pastries for many years, helped by a large car park in its centre. There is also plenty of on-street car parking, but the fact these spaces are more than often full, especially at busy times, shows just how popular this community is with locals.
But then the car park shut for development, and local businesses say they have been badly impacted. Customers don't know where to park, and tempers are getting frayed over the few remaining space.
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Coastal Housing Group was originally given permission to build 17 homes on the site, but later said it had changed its plans to instead build 15 new apartments and retain 19 car parking spaces for public use. It said at that time in a press release last year: "We have exciting plans to create 15 new apartments on the site, which will continue to offer parking spaces for local people during, and after, construction."
However, a notice on fencing at the entrance of the car park now reads: "This car park will be closed from Monday 17th April 12:00am. No vehicles are permitted to use this car park from this date. Thank you."
A spokesperson for Coastal Housing Group has now confirmed that it was later decided that there would be 13 apartments built on the site with public car parking spaces provided in the future. The not-for-profit company had hoped to retain parking spaces during construction, but this had not been possible as things had progressed, the spokesperson added.
Some business owners in Sketty claimed the closure had come as a shock and that they were not given enough notice. A spokesperson for Coastal Housing Group said, however, that a community event was held on March 29 for the development and local residents and businesses were written to on March 31, ahead of works starting on April 24. A spokesman said some car parking spaces would still be available for public use.
"Alongside social media promotion and installing car park closure signage, our team visited local businesses in person to make them aware of the community event, posting flyers to businesses who were not open at the time of the visit," added the spokesperson.
But the owner of a social enterprise cafe on Gower Road, Sketty, said she walked past the site on Eversley Road twice a day on her commute and still had no idea that work was due to start last month. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
"We knew Coastal owned the car park but it was a shock to a lot of people [when the car park was closed]," said Claire Crone, 37, owner of Square Peg cafe. "A lot of people are surprised they are building something. Long term it will have an impact on us. There is other parking that members of staff might know about but most customers don't know where to park now," she added.
Owners of salons and tattoo parlours in the area - which rely on customers staying at their businesses for extended periods - said the closure of the car park had dramatically impacted staff and customers visiting Sketty each day.
"It's affected everyone to be honest. It's had a massive effect even just on us staff trying to get to work," said owner of Mrs M's Tattoos & Piercings, Rhian Mansfield, 39. "Customers have to be here all day. We get people ringing us and saying they can't find anywhere to park. Then they are running late and this knocks the entire day off."
The tattoo parlour owner claimed she had not received any information regarding the car park being redeveloped and added that it made her feel unimportant as a businessowner. "They take away parking and we can't function," she added. Another concerned business owner is Sketty salon owner, Sophie Strawbridge, 28, who said she had thought about moving No. 86 Beauty as a result of the parking difficulties.
For nearly seven years, Sophie has worked from her salon in Eversley Road, not far from the Coastal development. On everyday life since construction works began, she said: "People can't park and they're getting frustrated. The road rage is crazy, if we've got the door open there's constant shouting."
There are one hour parking bays in Eversley Road, but this was not long enough for Sophie's customers who visited her salon for treatments, she said. Some customers are dividing up their treatments so they spend less time at the salon and in parking bays and others are having to leave halfway through a treatment to move their car.
Another business, Dilly's Kitchen, has started to offer free deliveries to customers on orders over £30 to combat the lack of parking in the area. "A lot of our customers have come in and said they can't find anywhere to park in Sketty," said deli co-owner Thomas Tyrrell Howell, 37, who added it was difficult for elderly customers to park their cars further away and walk to the local businesses.
"No plan has been given to us and we don't know what to say to customers," he claimed. "We thought we've got to do something, that's why we're offering free deliveries. There will be less life in Sketty. You want these places to thrive. It's going to affect businesses," he explained. Dilly's Kitchen co-owner Deborah Palmer added that although social housing in Sketty was needed, she wondered why it was being built on "the one car park in Sketty".
A spokesperson from Coastal Housing Group said: “Sketty is a thriving community with lots of popular independent shops and cafes that local people value. Our revised plans for this site are designed to minimise disruption to local people and businesses, whilst delivering on our commitment to provide more homes.
“The existing car park will be upgraded to offer 19 spaces, including dedicated disabled spaces for the first time. Coastal is committed to environmental sustainability so we are also exploring whether secure bike parking and EV charging facilities can be offered at this location.”
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