Shoppers abandon their vehicles after being stuck in three hour car park queue
Easter shoppers were left fuming after they were stuck in massive three hour queues just to get out of the car park.
Hundreds of people flocked to Cardiff city centre for some Easter shopping to celebrate the four day weekend.
But instead of grabbing a few bargains and a bite to eat and getting out again, they found themselves trapped in the car park for over three hours in some cases, unable to get out.
Things got so bad that some motorists just abandoned their cars altogether due to the chaos at St David’s car park in the Welsh capital.
The situation, which was a “standstill” at its worse, was only resolved late into Saturday evening.
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The chaos was described as 'mental' by one shopper caught up in it (Supplied)St David's said on social media that the gridlock was due to "the heavy congestion on the road the car park exits into" and the "council-controlled traffic lights" which it said were "still only letting traffic out of the car park very slowly".
They added that they "have asked the council to change the lights to prioritise letting people out of the car park".
But things were so dire this evening that some people left their cars behind and used taxis or public transport to get home.
Sarah Barnett was one of countless shoppers caught in the chaos, she pleaded with the car park to let her know when it was freed up, after taking an Uber home, so she could return for her car.
The car park pointed the finger partially at the council for the issues (Supplied)But video footage sent to WalesOnline appeared to show no congestion outside the car park and traffic moving freely.
Meanwhile contradictory footage and pictures from inside the car park showed queues all the way up the six-story car park, which has 2,000 spaces.
Drivers could be heard honking their horns in frustration, while car park staff on the lower level could be seen waving them through the exit.
A 26-year-old woman, who had come down for Easter from Brighton to surprise her family in the Vale of Glamorgan, said the situation in the car park was "mental".
She had come to spend some time in the city centre before visiting her family.
She said she entered the car park at around around 2.30pm and noticed drivers were queuing to exit the car park as she entered it.
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"I thought: 'Oh, that's weird' but didn't think anything more of it."
But by the time she arrived back in the car park just before 7pm she spotted there was "gridlock all the way up" the car park and people were beeping their horns and standing outside of their cars.
"We got to our car on level six and couldn't even back out of our spot," she said.
"I knew someone on level seven and they'd told me they'd been there for an hour. 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.
"We walked past the exit to see if there was a traffic light issue, or an accident, and there was nothing. Traffic was moving fine...we couldn't see any reason why there was such an issue. I'm getting the train back home to see my family and we'll come back tomorrow to pick up the car. Because we've seen people tweeting that they've been there for three hours...I don't particularly want to sit in the car for three hours.
Tony Woolway from Fairwater in Cardiff was said he only managed to get out of the car park after three hours. He said: "It was gridlock. Nothing was moving. We went 30 yards in two hours and we were on the sixth floor. It was just clearing when we left after 3 hours. People were beeping their horns and many just left their cars and headed off to get food and drink to comeback later on.
"We rang the car park number and was told it was down to the traffic lights staying on red for too long blaming the council. They said the there was an unusual amount of people leaving at the same time which was unexpected and helped make the problem worse. They also advised that we leave and come back later."
A message from South Wales Police on Twitter said: "There is significant congestion around the Cardiff City Centre area this evening, particularly around the car parks close to the Motorpoint Arena. Efforts are being made to ease the congestion. Motorists are advised to allow extra time for their journeys."
St David's shared on social media that the situation had been cleared by 8:30pm.
A spokesperson for the centre said: “Unfortunately, congestion in the city centre caused a queue in the car park and the sequencing of the traffic lights outside meant the backlog took some time to clear. The situation is now resolved and the car park is clear. We know how frustrating congestion is and are sorry for the inconvenience to our guests.”
Cardiff Council have been approached for comment.
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