Volunteers at a clothes bank in Newport say they might have to close in the coming weeks because the council keeps fining them for parking outside the building. The team at the Ukrainian refugee clothes bank in the Kingsway shopping centre in the city explained how they began being booked around a month ago for parking in the car park behind the premises to unload in the mornings and pack up in the afternoons.
Clothes bank organiser Helen Oliver says she has parked in the Kear Court courtyard area behind the clothes bank in the city centre since April, and was stunned when the council warned her and her fellow volunteers over parking there in November. The volunteers initially decided to ignore posters that had been placed in the courtyard warning against parking there, believing they wouldn’t be booked due to them volunteering for a good cause, but then they started receiving fines.
They then started parking away from the premises in the day, but parked outside for a short while in the mornings and afternoons to unpack and pack their cars. But they said even then they were being fined.
