A POPULAR car park will be closed 'for the foreseeable future'.

Ever since the introduction of short term parking restrictions upon the Ty Nant Car Park in Prestatyn at the beginning of January, the parish church car park - also known as the 'Upper Car Park', which is not subject to those restrictions - has been full from early each day. It caters for about 90 cars.

This section is owned by the Church is Wales and managed by Prestatyn Parish Church.

A sign to say the car park is closed has been put in place from today (Friday, February 1).

Reverend David Ash, vicar of Prestatyn, said: "Up until about five years ago there had been a longstanding lease of the site by Prestatyn Town Council which allowed it to be run and maintained along with the rest of the town car parks. That arrangement ended about five years ago at the request of the church when the whole site was being considered for redevelopment by Denbighshire County Council and at the same time the future of the church owned part and halls was also being reviewed.

Rhyl Journal:

Rev David Ash, vicar of Prestatyn, is hoping the car park can reopen soon. This was the scene at 8am this morning.

"The outcome was that when Ty Nant became the local medical hub, the car parks continued to be free without restriction. During that period, the church continued to wrestle with what might be done on a longer term basis and that has remained unresolved.

"The church now finds itself in the position that it is fully liable for the site, pays rates to Denbighshire, pays insurance, has had some sizeable maintenance bills - with more likely - and is not currently able to afford to light that area at night.

"From a pure economics perspective, with absolutely no income from the car park, the expenses have become too burdensome.

"The church has been delighted to offer a free resource for so long but now with full capacity being utilised, there needs to be a longer term plan that works better."

Mr Ash said the decision to close the park was "extremely difficult".

He offered his thanks to residents in Prestatyn who had, at 8am on Friday, followed notices.

He added: "The car park was entirely empty at 8am, whereas ever since the beginning of January it has been entirely full. This does mean that 90 cars will be elsewhere now. There will be some posts put up blocking off the entrance.

"I do very much hope that it can be back in action soon and this will be a short period of closure.

"The Prestatyn Churches Committee see this as an interim measure to limit liability, give better opportunity to review the overall health and safety of the site and to bring into focus how best to ensure the long term viability of that car park for the future.

"The committee is aware that there might be some short term pressure on local streets and is sorry to those concerned, however it also hopes that there could be some expression of interest (maybe a local consortium) that could work in partnership with the church to manage and maintain the car park so that it remains a useful resource for the town's use."

While the car park is closed there will be no right of access or individual parking arrangements.

Mr Ash said: "We hope to be able to reverse this decision soon, but for the present this is the only course of action that seems to be open to us."