Technical Note 1. INTRODUCTION 2. DETAILS of DEVELOPMENT 2.1

Technical Note 1. INTRODUCTION 2. DETAILS of DEVELOPMENT 2.1

Technical Note Page 1 of 8 Job title St Tydfil Square Job number 119668 cc APS Project Management File reference 4.70 Prepared by Arup (Cardiff) Date 26 April 2006 Subject Car Parking Assessment 1. INTRODUCTION This report provides a review of the existing car parking provision in the vicinity of the St Tydfil Square site and provides an estimate of the number of vehicle trips likely to be generated by the proposed cinema and retail development. 2. DETAILS OF DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Site Location The proposed cinema and retail development is located to the west of Merthyr Tydfil town centre, on a 0.45ha site bounded to the north by Castle Street, to the west by Avenue de Clichy, to the south by St Tydfil Square Shopping Centre and to the east by the central bus station. The site is currently vacant. 2.2 Proposed Development The proposed development comprises the following (as of 25 April 2006): Ground Floor • Units 1 – 4 = A3 Retail (1595m²) • Unit 5 = A1 or A3 Retail (use to be confirmed, A3 Retail assumed for trip generation purposes) (545m²) First / Second Floors • Leisure Unit 792m² (use to be confirmed, A3 Retail assumed for trip generation purposes) • 8 screen multiplex cinema, 1140 seats (3882m²) Other than for operational purposes, no parking is proposed within the curtilages of the development; instead the use of existing public car parking facilities is envisaged. The nearest car park is College (East), 100m to the west on the opposite bank of the River Taff. J:\119000\119668-00\4 INTERNAL PROJECT DATA\4-70 TECHNICAL NOTES\0001PG TRANSPORT TECHNICAL ©Arup F0.15 NOTE_REV3.DOC Rev 9.4, 15 March 2004 119668 Technical Note 26 April 2006 Page 2 of 8 3. EXISTING TRANSPORT CONDITIONS 3.1 Car Parking Supply There are a total of approximately 1163 off-street parking spaces in Merthyr Tydfil town centre, all within 10 minutes’ walk of the St Tydfil Square site. An additional 44 spaces are available at Abermorlais, to the north of the development site, at weekends when not occupied by permit- holding employees of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. These facilities are subject to charges between 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. The town centre car parking facilities and tariff is indicated in Table 1. The car park locations are illustrated in Figure 1. Table 1: Existing Town Centre Off-Street Car Parks, Merthyr Tydfil Car Park Name Number of spaces Tariff (incl. disabled) 1 hour 2 hours 3 hours 4 hours All day 5 days 6 days Abermorlais (Saturdays / Sundays 44 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 only) Castle 291 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 Castle (South) 19 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 College (East) 334 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 College (South) 56 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 College (Extension) 307 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 Gilar Street 91 40p 60p 70p N/A N/A N/A N/A Swan Street (disabled 23 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 only) Tramroad 42 40p 60p 70p £1.00 £2.00 £9.00 £9.50 Total 1163 (Mon – Fri) An additional 460 public parking spaces are available at the former Station Car Park site; however these spaces are managed by Euro Car Parks on behalf of Tesco. Stays of longer than 2 hours are prohibited at all times, with the store being open 24 hours from 8am Monday to 10pm Saturday. There are also a number of on-street parking spaces in the town centre; however most of these are restricted to short stays of two hours or less. 3.2 Car Parking Usage A walkover survey was undertaken between 11am and 12:30pm on Friday 31 March 2006 to gain an impression of the level of spare capacity in town centre car parks during the day. The observations made were as follows: • Castle – operating at 90% of capacity; • Tramroad – 90%; • Gilar Street – 66%; • College (East) – 90%; • College (South) – 100%; and • College (Extension) – 25%. J:\119000\119668-00\4 INTERNAL PROJECT DATA\4-70 TECHNICAL NOTES\0001PG TRANSPORT TECHNICAL ©Arup F0.15 NOTE_REV3.DOC Rev 9.4, 15 March 2004 119668 Technical Note 26 April 2006 Page 3 of 8 Data for the number of tickets issued by length of stay was supplied by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council for the car parks around the College and adjacent to the former Castle Cinema site, for the week Monday 3 April 2006 – Saturday 8 April 2006. This suggests that College (East) car park operates at approximately four-fifths of daily capacity on both weekdays and Saturdays. Demand for the Castle car park is at a similar level. However, the College (Extension) car park is significantly less well used, with ticket data indicating that parking demand is approximately one-third of available capacity. These findings were corroborated by the walkover survey. With regard to the effect of market days on parking demand, the ticket data indicated that demand on the Tuesday at College (Extension) car park was significantly higher at approximately one-half of available capacity, although Saturday demand was marginally lower than the weekday average. However, this data does not indicate the peaks in parking demand throughout the day. Discussions with Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council indicate that spare parking capacity is plentiful in the town centre after 4:30pm. Despite this, a significant level of evening parking demand is generated by Merthyr Tydfil College students attending night classes, which run from Mondays to Thursdays, ending at 9pm. Most night-time students arrive by car, parking in the adjacent College (East) car park. As College (East) is the facility in closest proximity to the proposed cinema and retail development, it is anticipated that the majority of car-borne visitors will park at this location. To estimate the level of spare capacity at College (East) car park during the late afternoon and evening period (at which time the level of cinema admissions are likely to be at their highest), a survey of car park arrivals and departures was undertaken on Tuesday 4 April 2006 between 4pm and 10pm. This represented a worst case scenario as Tuesdays and Saturdays are market days on which the majority of spaces in College (South) car park are allocated to authorised users (i.e. market traders’ vehicles), increasing pressure on the adjacent car parks. The results of the survey, together with the estimated parking accumulation, are presented in Table 2 below. J:\119000\119668-00\4 INTERNAL PROJECT DATA\4-70 TECHNICAL NOTES\0001PG TRANSPORT TECHNICAL ©Arup F0.15 NOTE_REV3.DOC Rev 9.4, 15 March 2004 119668 Technical Note 26 April 2006 Page 4 of 8 Table 2: Afternoon and Evening Arrivals/Departures, College (East) Car Park, 04/04/2006 Time Arrivals Departures Accumulation Spaces Vacant Vehicles parked at 16:00 254 80 16:00 - 16:15 23 37 240 94 16:15 - 16:30 18 36 222 112 16:30 - 16:45 11 26 207 127 16:45 - 17:00 9 39 177 157 17:00 - 17:15 16 63 130 204 17:15 - 17:30 20 29 121 213 17:30 - 17:45 20 39 102 232 17:45 - 18:00 27 31 98 236 18:00 - 18:15 15 16 97 237 18:15 - 18:30 3 12 88 246 18:30 - 18:45 4 6 86 248 18:45 - 19:00 18 2 102 232 19:00 - 19:15 6 4 104 230 19:15 - 19:30 4 16 92 242 19:30 - 19:45 7 9 90 244 19:45 - 20:00 4 14 80 254 20:00 - 20:15 1 11 70 264 20:15 - 20:30 9 20 59 275 20:30 - 20:45 6 30 35 299 20:45 - 21:00 5 25 15 319 21:00 - 21:15 4 9 10 324 21:15 - 21:30 14 7 17 317 21:30 - 21:45 13 5 25 309 21:45 - 22:00 10 11 24 310 End 24 310 Table 2 indicates that a significant proportion of spaces at College (East) car park were vacant throughout the survey, despite the presence of market vehicles displacing some cars elsewhere. 80 spaces (24%) were vacant at 4pm, with the number of vacant spaces increasing steadily after this time as town centre employees and shoppers returned to their vehicles. A significant number of arrivals were recorded between 4pm and 6pm, although many of these were picking up or setting down college staff and students. As students arrived for their night classes from 6:45pm onwards, so a small increase in parked vehicles was recorded. However, more than two-thirds of spaces remained vacant. The majority of students left the car park between 8:30pm and 9:00pm. The congregation of young people and their cars from 8pm onwards represented a significant proportion of arrivals and departures, with cars regularly exiting and re-entering the car park. 3.3 Public Transport Network The St Tydfil Square site is well located in relation to the local public transport network, with the central bus station being located immediately to the east of the development site (Figure 1). From the bus station frequent services are provided to both the Merthyr Tydfil urban area and the surrounding region, including Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Brynmawr and Brecon. The majority of services are operated by Stagecoach South Wales, although Sixty-Sixty Coaches operates the X43 route between Cardiff and Abergavenny.

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