WHAT a difference a day makes.

At least that is what Clase residents living around Swansea's DVLA offices will tell you following this week's 48-hour walk-out by agency staff.

But photographs taken by the Evening Post appear to tell a different story.

For months, fed up members of the community have been moaning about staff at the government department.

They claimed that on a daily basis, employees parked their cars on streets surrounding the head office in Longview Road, causing chaos for residents with cars.

On Monday and Tuesday this week a welcome respite was set to be offered as a third of the 4,000 or so civil servants working at the DVLA took part in strike action, freeing up parking spaces in Clase.

They were among thousands of Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union members who took part in a UK-wide strike about changes to redundancy and fears over pension cash.

The Evening Post sent a photographer to the area on Tuesday and again on Wednesday to see what difference the strike made to the parking situation — but the pictures reveal little difference, with plenty of empty spaces.

But Mynyddbach councillor Audrey Clement said: "For two days the problem was much, much better, people have noticed the difference.

"On the weekends we have no problem with parking and it was the same at the beginning of the week, you can see for yourselves that problems are a direct effect of the DVLA building."

Frustrations with DVLA staff came to a head last month when employees had their car tyres slashed while at work. Eyewitnesses said as many as 40 cars were attacked.

One DVLA worker caught up in the incident, who did not want his name published for fear of further attacks, said: "Every car in the road had its tyres slashed — it was unbelievable. People were left stranded, nobody could get home."

Our pictures might not back up the parking problem claims, but Audrey Clement was adamant things needed to change. She added: "There are people working in the office from 7am to 7pm and people simply cannot park outside their houses."

The DVLA reiterated efforts were being made to solve the parking problems.

A spokesperson said: "We actively encourage the use of a range of parking facilities.

"These include car sharing, subsidised works buses, prioritised permits, overflow parking and a park and ride facility at Felindre, which has capacity far greater than our needs."

sion.morgan@swwmedia.co.uk

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