Traders furious as all car parks 'closed' in Truro after IT glitch

Traders in Truro are furious after an IT glitch meant LED signs into the city said all Cornwall Council car parks were 'closed'. Businesses in the city said the electronic signs along the access roads into Truro showing car parks as being unavailable to visitors and shoppers has turned people away at a time when the high street is already suffering from high rent and rates and the cost of living crisis.

The signs, which normally indicate how many car parking spaces are available at each Cornwall Council car park, showed Lemon Quay, Garras Wharf and Edward Street facilities as being closed with Moorfield car park only having 'limited' spaces, even though all were open.

The wrong information was spotted by shoppers and commuters on Friday evening (June 14) with many people taking to social media to complain. On the Truro...Our City page, Kevin Bennetts said: "I noticed that earlier, it must be doing wonders for trade in the town so why don't they just make them free until the issue is sorted?"

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Hilary Pryor added: "Nothing structural in Garras Wharf and Edward Street... It’s more likely a glitch in the signage." Joy Arnold joked: "The council are fed up with people trying to spend their money in Truro. Go away and don't bother us is their message. No cars, get the bus if you can bear the experience and don't need to carry much. Moorfield car park will never be fixed, I wonder what the plans for that are."

Last month the local authority announced that the upper decks of the Moorfield multi storey car park would be closed for the foreseeable future because it has come to the end of its "design life" and that remedial work to extend its life is unlikely to be possible or financially viable.

The ground floor and outside sections of the 680-space car park off Calenick Street, as well as a parking area for reserved permit holders, is still open, but the multi-storey sections (decks four to nine) were suddenly closed on Tuesday, May 21. At the time, traders worried the loss of parking would have a detrimental impact on business in the city.

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Cornwall Council said parking is available at Truro Park and Ride, which has a total of 2,588 spaces split between its Langarth and Tregurra sites with day tickets costing £2.40.

A spokesperson from Truro Fabrics, in the city centre, told CornwallLive: "Truro businesses are already finding it hard enough with the current financial crisis without the car parking signage putting shoppers off coming into Truro with incorrect signage falsely stating that car parks are closed.

"Apparently this is due to a computer glitch but why are businesses not being made aware of this so we can push our social media and it being corrected as a matter of urgency! It feels like the city centre is being sabotaged between the signage and no public information regarding Moorfield car park."

Truro is not the only town in Cornwall to have experienced some parking signage glitches with similar issues also being recorded in Falmouth, St Ives and Newquay in the last few days.

Alun Jones, BID manager with Truro BID, said the issue was of concern to businesses on the high street and asked for the local authority to ensure it is sorted quickly.

He said: "Truro BID along with the local businesses are obviously concerned about this recent incorrect messaging issue at some Cornwall Council car parks, we need our customers to have smooth access into and out of our city centre car parks. We have received confirmation that Cornwall Council are aware of and currently dealing with this issue, we are expecting an update, hopefully soon."

A spokesperson for Truro City Council added: "We are aware of the issue with the car park signage at the weekend and have contacted Cornwall Council to ascertain the reason why the signs were saying that the car parks were closed. It was caused by an error apparently and they are arranging for the signs to be deactivated until it can be rectified."

Cornwall Council said the car park signs were switched off over the weekend after the fault with the software caused the signs to show the car parks as closed. The local authority said the issue had now been resolved and the signs are working correctly again.

They added: "Following the issue we have asked our software provider to ensure that should a fault occur again, the signs will default to ‘open’ rather than ‘closed’."