EASTER shoppers were forced to abandon their vehicles after being stuck in a three-hour queue to leave a multi-storey car park in Wales.
Bank holiday chaos erupted at St David’s Shopping Centre in Cardiff yesterday as people left their cars and decided to take a taxi home.
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A spokesperson for the centre said the disruption was down to a combination of heavy traffic outside and the “council-controlled traffic lights” did not prioritise the car park.
People went on Twitter to air their concerns about the amount of time they were trapped, saying they had gone on foot to get food and water due to the long queues.
Reports about the queues appear to have started at around 2.30pm and by 4pm people had already been waiting for an hour just to leave the car park.
However, a clip taken outside the car park appears to show not particularly heavy traffic.
The centre’s spokesperson only confirmed the car park had cleared at around 8.30pm and those who had left their vehicles could go back and collect them.
Video which was shared online showed the chaos inside the six-storey car park which has 2,000 spaces.
A huge line of stationary cars could be seen and drivers honked their horns in sheer frustration.
The person filming the video moved around the car park to show the extent of the queues of cars waiting to leave as car horns echo around.
The cars appear to be at a stand-still and those that are able to move only crawl along.
One person allegedly stuck inside the centre shared a video of the traffic outside on Twitter, writing: “@StDavidsCardiff how can you say that the roads outside are gridlocked???
“I’ve been stuck for 2 hours so far on level 6 and still not moved. Just been outside to get supplies and this is the current roads…”
The shopping centre said in response: “The congestion has been steadily easing, however the council-controlled traffic lights are still only letting traffic out of the car park very slowly.
“We have asked the council to change the lights to prioritise letting people out of the car park.”
Tony Woolway, from Cardiff, claimed he had been waiting for three hours to leave the car park.
He told Wales Online: “It was gridlock. Nothing was moving. We went 30 yards in two hours and we were on the sixth floor.”
Mr Woolway said he had phoned the car park and had been told the gridlock was down to the traffic lights controlled by the council staying on red for too long, which didn’t let people out.
He added he had been advised to leave and come back later.
A 26-year-old woman told the news outlet she had arrived at 2.30pm and there was already a queue.
She said: “I thought ‘Oh, that’s weird’ but didn’t think anything more of it.”
But when she returned to the car park at 7pm there was “gridlock all the way up” with drivers blasting their horns and people standing outside their vehicles.
The woman added: “There were people there with their kids in the car… it’s absolute chaos.
“They’ve got security on the ramp letting one person through at a time, but there must be hundreds of cars all queuing.”
The woman ended up getting a train back home to her family and decided she would pick up her car on Easter Sunday, which the centre had confirmed people would be able to do.
The Sun Online has contacted Cardiff Council for comment.
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