A COUNCILLOR has described the signs and ticket machines at car parks in Wellington as “ugly, unimaginative and shabby” and gave visitors to the town a very poor first impression.
Cllr Keith Wheatley spoke at Wellington Town Council’s economic development committee meeting on September 11 where he told colleagues that he became dismayed when he took a closer look at car park signage and said: “What a mess!”
It is probably not something people take a lot of notice of when using the town’s car parks, but Cllr Wheatley has not held back on how he feels about the situation.
“First impressions are very often lasting impressions,” he said. “For many people who don’t live here the first impressions visitors to the town get will be the car parks at North Street, Longforth Road and South Street.
“But when they go to get a ticket and they look at the signs they will be thinking – what sort of town is this? The signs are ugly, unimaginative and shabby.
“As a town we shouldn’t put up with this – the signs are a disgrace. We need to get on to Somerset Council to sort them out.
“After Council Tax, the car parks are a major revenue stream for Somerset Council.”
Cllr Wheatley has been looking at what possible improvements could be made at the North Street car park and his investigations have led to him making a negative conclusion about the signs.
He said the signs were so untidy and cluttered with posters that they looked awful and that ticket machines were also covered in bits of sticky tape.
Councillors were in agreement with Cllr Wheatley – especially after he passed round photographs of the offending signs which illustrated what he meant.
The Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said: “I totally agree – the signs are not welcoming for anyone.”
Cllr John Thorne added: “Credit to Cllr Wheatley on bringing this to our attention and he is quite right. The signs are shocking and surely we could do something about it?”
Councillors were adamant that Somerset Council – despite all of its financial woes at present – needed to sort out the signage.
Cllr Mike McGuffie said: “We should get Somerset Council to do this work.”
And committee chairman, Cllr Chris Booth, said: “The signs look terrible.”
Cllr Mark Lithgow said: “It is insulting that Somerset Council is treating us this way. Somerset Council needs to do this and we shouldn’t have to offer to pay to have it done either – it is a disgrace.”
Cllr Lithgow quipped that he would even go as far as to recall a sketch to Somerset Council taken from BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers involving actor John Cleese and a garden gnome.
Although he did not go into detail, Cllr Lithgow was referring to a 1975 episode of the legendary comedy entitled The Builders in which famed hotelier Basil Fawlty threatened to “insert a large garden gnome” into a workman unless they carried out some work quickly.