The two preceding weekends were washed out. That included the
disappointing Small Business Saturday. So, what of the last Saturday before Christmas 2015? A crucial one for town traders. The morning was dry and, at last, it was busy. But, sadly, not busy enough. There were complaints that trade wasn't up to expectation. The town nevertheless was much busier than a usual Saturday morning. By 11.30, it had hotted up as far as it was going to. There were 161 cars parked at Tesco. The Co-op's car park was ¾-full and, unusually for the Co-op, staff had opened two main tills as well as the usual the two kiosk tills by the entrance. Just before noon, there were queues emerging from the Post Office (if they were buying second class stamps for a Christmas delivery, today was the last posting date and the collection had been 15 minutes earlier). Chatwin's had a bit of a queue. Cars, predictably, were everywhere, reversing into roadside parking spaces and otherwise erratically parked. Neither Clwyd Street nor Park Road car parks was full. Market Street was.
Saturday afternoons in Rhuthun/Ruthin are slow. Today, there were definitely more about but the numbers were low. Then came the heavy rain, just before 3.00 p.m., with predictable results. Meanwhile, both the Co-op and, of course, Tesco remained busy in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, no free parking today in town, other than in the large County Hall car park (now that the
council owns it back). No one took advantage of this during the morning, with a solitary car in the mid-afternoon. People complain of (a) costly parking and (b) a lack of space* yet the remedy as offered by the county council isn't being used.
*—a lack of space, that is, in the popular car parks. Walking round from County Hall via either Market Street or Well Street seems too inconvenient.
