Bitter sweet day (From Penarth Times)

Bitter sweet day

A PENARTH shop is to close after more than 30 years of being in business - and the owner has blamed pedestrianisation as one of the major factors.

Prisks is the last sweet shop and tobacconist in the town and the current owner Keith Hazell has been in the shop for 22 years.

His assistant Gaynor Carey has worked in the shop since Mr Hazell bought the premises.

She said: 'I shall be sad to leave my job here. I have managed to get another job in a tobacconist. We will be open as usual on the night the lights are switched on but we will close our doors for the last time on Saturday, November 27.'

Mr Hazell added: 'It's time to move on and do something else. I've enjoyed my time here but it was a struggle when Glebe Street was pedestrianised.

'I know it was a difficult for lots of shops to make ends meet. Five businesses have changed hands because of the changes.

'It was a big mistake to get rid of the parking here. All the time I have been in this shop parking problems have blighted the town. I don't think the people who decided to put the scheme in place were really thinking about the businesses at all.

'I remember when the scheme was implemented. The first we all knew about it was when the council came to do the work. Whatever was said about us being consulted on the scheme was rubbish. I didn't see anyone popping in to talk to me about it.'

Mr Hazell will decide what to do next after the Christmas break. The shop has been bought but it will not be another sweet shop and tobacconist.

On Friday Prisks will be staying open late for the switching on of the Penarth Town lights which they have done since opening in 1982.