TRADERS have welcomed the decision to create extra parking for shoppers and workers in Monmouth.

Ninety-five free parking spaces will be built on land off Rockfield Road, opposite Monmouth Fire and Ambulance Station, after Monmouthshire council’s planning committee unanimously approved the bid.

The site is currently being used as an informal recreation area and is next to the new skatepark. Access to and from the car park on Rockfield Road will be widened and improved as part of the development. It will also have a dedicated pedestrian link from the parking site to improve access for those on foot.

The lack of parking in the town has been a major problem for several years and it is hoped the additional spaces will help to relieve parking problems in the town centre.

David Cummings, Chairman of Monmouth and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said traders 'wholeheartedly’ support the creation of a new car park.

Mr Cummings said it is something that the chamber has lobbied for since 2008 to serve the 1,000 workers employed in retail without any dedicated car parking spaces.

“There is an urgent need for a free car park to be used mainly by shop workers, some of whom are on the minimum wage and zero hour contracts who find difficulty affording to pay for parking in the council pay and display car parks,” he added.

“The chamber very much supports the fact that the car park will have an all-weather surface and would be lit, so can be used at all times of the year.”

He said it will be mean shop workers are less likely to take up parking in residential streets close to town and free up space in the Glendower Street Car Park for residents.

Mr Cummings said he hopes that work to create the car park will begin before the end of the year.