PLEAS by three community councils to avoid ‘village-killing’ charges being imposed in their car parks have been turned down by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

At the March 20 meeting of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, members heard expressions of interest from Angle, Amroth, and Nolton and Roch community councils in running national park-owned car parks in their areas.

This follows previously-agreed park plans to introduce charges at the sites, moving from a free year-round service to seasonal charging.

Nolton and Roch asked for ownership to be transferred to the community council, with donations through an honesty box rather than parking charges.

Both Angle and Amroth sought a community asset transfer of their car parks if parking charges are introduced.

Concerns about the introduction of parking charges have previously been raised at a public meeting in Angle late last year, which many felt will “kill” the village through a decline in tourism.

The public meeting held at Angle village hall heard parking charges were expected to generate some £20,000 a year for the park, but there are fears introduction would make Angle a “dead” village, with a decline in tourism.

A petition objecting to the changes has collected more than 3,000 signatures.

The meeting heard some £71,000 had been spent on the car park over 10 years.

The report before the national park stated: “…the authority is not seeking partners or arm’s-length third parties to operate any, or all, of our charging car park sites.”

It added: “The authority has a responsibility to raise reasonable revenue streams from the assets which it holds and the services which it provides.

“There is a general acceptance of parking charges among the wider motoring population and the proposed parking charges and terms of use at Amroth, West Angle and Nolton will mirror those which already govern the public’s use of the authority’s 10 pre-existing charging car parks.”

Members followed a recommendation to decline the community councils’ offers.

Parking charges are expected to be introduced in March 2020.