A REPORT on what Penarth residents want for their town has identified a lack of parking as the main issue when related to shopping in the town.

Town centre users were asked to complete a two minute survey documenting their experience of the town where the lack of parking was raised.

However the report, completed in March 2015 after being commissioned by Vale Town Centre development manager Mari Wyn Elias-Jones, shows positive trends in other areas.

The people and places town benchmarking guide focuses on a range of aspects to do with shops and local businesses such as footfall, vacancy rates and business confidence.

Penarth is categorised as a small south west town as it contains less than 250 units.

The report found that five per cent of units in the town centre were vacant in January 2015 which is two per cent lower than both the national and regional averages.

It also states how the average non market weekday footfall of 148 persons per ten minutes is higher than that for south west and national small towns.

Business confidence data suggested that 47 per cent of traders expected their annual turnover to increase over the next 12 months with 44 per cent saying they expected theirs to stay the same.

Other information collected hinted the positive aspects of local customers and a higher than national average customer spend.

Areas for improvement included car parking which saw 97 per cent of traders and over 80 per cent of town centre users highlighting it as a negative, significantly higher than the national and south west small towns' averages.

Parking provision was the main concern and the low footfall on Stanwell Road was also highlighted as an issue.

Councillor Lis Burnett, cabinet member for regeneration, said it was no surprise that parking was the main issue but that it was a mainly positive report.

The ward member for St Augustines, said: “The report makes clear that Penarth is a vibrant and healthy town centre that is well supported by local people.

“Vacancy rates are low, footfall is higher than the national average, and business confidence is good. The higher than average customer spend is also great news for local businesses. What’s more the town centre is not only booming but also unique. Seventy per cent of the shops in Penarth are independent retailers. The nature of the shops plus the wide range of cafés and restaurants is what gives Penarth its charm.

"And as the report shows, is part of what makes it so popular with visitors. Even more encouraging are Penarth town centre’s prospects for the future.

"This month’s Picnic Penarth proved that the town is now a destination for food lovers.

"Our next step must to harness the potential for developing the night time economy and drive further prosperity for the town."