I REFER to Isobel Jones’s letter in your issue of the Penarth Times on May 26.

The car park built at the the end of the promenade in the 1960s, and demolished some time later, was both a useful facility and, as an example of brutalism in architecture, a feature of the promenade that would in time have attracted many connoisseurs to admire it as a rare surviving example of its kind.

With the development of the promenade and the pier, and the introduction of at least two high quality restaurants (one associated with a Michelin star), the need for adequate car parking facilities has increased. It can hardly be expected that, in winter weather, potential customers of these restaurants, or of the pier cinema, would relish a walk from the Cliff Walk car park.

It seems that, in contrast to Cardiff Council’s rejection of Zaha Hadid’s design for an iconic opera house, Penarth was with the zeitgeist in commissioning the car park. Sadly, it did not maintain its conviction in the face of those whose objections carried the day for its demolition.

What next? It is clear to those of us who visit from afar that a car park on the promenade is essential. Making the mistake of demolishing one car park should not inhibit making plans for building another.

I look forward with interest to future developments.

Dr Mary Edwards

Stratford Court

Stratford upon Avon