Car parking charges in Cardigan are ‘deterring’ people from visiting Theatr Mwldan and should be lowered to attract customers after the facility’s council funding was cut in this year’s budget.

Ceredigion County Council has launched a consultation on changes to parking fee structures throughout the county.

One of the affected car parks will be to the rear of Theatr Mwldan, and the theatre has called on supporters to lobby the council to reduce car parking charges in a bid to boost visitor numbers.

In a statement sent to supporters, Theatr Mwldan said that many “are unhappy with the parking charges currently levied.”

“Whilst the charges are beyond our control, we do know that they add additional costs to your visit to Mwldan, particularly if you are attending a live event or film screening and spending up to three or four hours with us,” they said.

“Many of you have cited unreasonable parking charges as the biggest deterrent to visiting.

“At a time when we need to encourage our customers to visit us more because of all the financial pressures we are experiencing, we feel that the reasonable revision of affordable parking charges by Cyngor Sir Ceredigion is now well overdue.”

The call comes after Ceredigion County Council axed its support for the arts in its 2024/25 budget in a bid to plug a multi-million pound financial black hole.

Theatr Mwldan said: “We were shocked to learn earlier this year that Cyngor Sir Ceredigion announced a 100 per cent cut to their arts funding, effective from their budget for 2024/25.

“In practice this means that Ceredigion are cutting their funding for Mwldan from £14,000 to zero.

“At a time when the whole arts sector in Wales is under serious financial pressure from increasing costs, loss of business income post-pandemic, and loss of funding, this particular funding cut from Ceredigion is a serious blow to our future financial sustainability.

“In that light, we clearly need Ceredigion to do everything they can to encourage increased attendance at Mwldan, and support for all other local businesses, and we believe lowering parking charges for customers to reasonable levels would go a long way to help to encourage increased usage and local spend.”

The theatre has asked supporters to respond to the consultation, which is available on the council’s website.

The proposed car parking charges at Mwldan, where it is currently £5.10 to park for 24 hours, will see a two hour charge at £4, a £5 charge for four hours, and up to 24 hours costing £7.

“Two hours is not enough time to see a standard-length film or live performance here,” the theatre said.

“Therefore customers will be looking at a saving of just 10p on the current charges for a four-hour stay.

“A stay of more than four hours will cost an extra £1.90.

“Given the customer response we have received to date, we believe that a £2 charge for up to four hours would be a reasonable suggestion as a compromise.”