CAR park barriers are now back in normal operation, says Looe Town Council, after more than a week of glitches and failures in the town’s main car park.

The Cornish Times print paper has this week reported how tempers frayed during the Bank Holiday weekend when the Pay on Exit barrier system at Looe’s Millpool car park stopped working properly. The problems continued into the half term week, and residents were reporting journey times of up to an hour to cross from one side of Looe to the other.

But even when functioning, the barrier system in the Cornwall Council-run car park had already come under fire for causing queues and adding more delay for those experiencing the already busy holiday traffic. Increased exhaust fumes are also a result of the stop-start queuing, as vehicles wait to enter and leave the Millpool and move across town.

The barriers were lifted up and parking was free for several days, which with 900 spaces at the Millpool, will have caused a potential loss of revenue to Cornwall Council running into thousands of pounds.

The town council initially feared that the problems could take “days or even weeks” to fix, but have today posted that the barriers and payment machines are back in operation and working normally.

“Customers are able to contact Cornwall Council’s back-office support staff (via the intercoms) if they have any concerns or issues,” said the local council.

“Cornwall Council will continue to monitor the equipment remotely, and an engineer has been on-site this morning.”

Looe Town Council is in talks with landowners to secure the use of fields for a park and ride system, which would tie in with Go Cornwall Bus services. Deputy mayor Edwina Hannaford said that as it is possible to operate such a service for 56 days without planning permission, she would hope to see this starting in mid-July to cover the busiest summer holiday period.

Speaking of the congestion in the town experienced during half term week, the Town Council said: “Drivers don’t know when they commit to driving into the car park, that it’s full. Therefore we have asked for ‘Millpool car park full’ signs to be erected at access points to the town.

“In the long term, working with the Cornwall Council team, we have managed to source a number of mobile electronic signs that will be programmed to show number of spaces available and their occupancy. These will be positioned much further out from the town, to enable drivers to make earlier decisions on the availability of spaces.”