OUTRAGED Tywyn town councillors have accused Gwynedd Council of pursuing an “illegal” pay and display car park along the town’s seafront.

In February of this year, Gwynedd Council announced plans to introduce more pay and display car parks in Dwyfor and Meirionnydd.

In Tywyn, the council proposed two sites for new car parks – Cae Bach, near the Bryn Heulog estate and Rhodfa’r Môr, the parking spaces along the promenade.

The plans were heavily criticised when they went before Tywyn Town Council. Town councillors claimed the county council had no right to use either site because the land did not belong to them.

Subsequently Gwynedd Council has dropped plans to create a pay and display car park at the Cae Bach site after admitting the land actually belonged to Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd. However, the county council is persisting with plans to charge along the promenade.

If the proposal goes through after being discussed at the council’s cabinet meeting on Thursday (19 November), visitors to Tywyn’s seafront will be forced to pay to park between 10am and 4.30pm in holiday months.

Cllr John Pughe said: “If these plans go through it would be disastrous for Tywyn’s tourism industry.

“The promenade does not belong to Gwynedd Council, it belongs to the people of Tywyn.

“What they are proposing is illegal, simple as that.”

Cllr Mark Kendall added: “It’s 2015 but it feels more like medieval times. Gwynedd Council is just rampaging from village to town trying to raise extra revenue though unfair levies.”