World of Glass refurb impacted as drivers with 'no shame' block access

As part of the wider regeneration plans in St Helens, almost £1 million has been spent from the Town Deal Fund to revamp the World of Glass and ensure it can compete with out-of-town museums.

Redesigning the galleries, improving its facilities and offering more interactive attractions, the investment has been described as a "last attempt" to future-proof the Chalon Way musuem, which also houses glassblowing demonstrations and a Grade II listed glassmaking furnace.

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Inconsiderate parking preventing food, refuse, and refurb deliveries

The parking problem has been a constant problem at the World of Glass (Image: World of Glass)

As the World of Glass' service car park leads out to where the multi-storey Chalon Way car park used to be, many residents have been trying to take advantage of this and leave their cars wherever they can to avoid paying for parking.

Although cones have been laid out to prevent illegal or inconsiderate parking, this has become a constant issue for those involved at the World of Glass or the refurbishment works.

This often leaves food deliveries and bin collections without any access to reach the premises, which inevitably builds up and causes disruption at the museum that is dependent on such services.

With some drivers completely blocking entrances to the service car park, this has also prevented skips from being delivered and caused delays to the museum's vital refurbishment.

'People have absolutely no shame'

The parking has been causing delays to the museum's refurbishment (Image: World of Glass)

Peter Frost, director of the World of Glass, said: "There have been people parking on the bend, on our land, and blocking our entrances. It feels like they have absolutely no shame.

"The charity is paying for refuse collection that does not happen because the wagons can’t get onto our car park, and when we ask people not to park we are subjected to expletives.

"We actually filmed someone the other day getting out of their car and kicking away our cones put out to help the refuse collection.

"The refurbishment project is the last attempt to sustain the World of Glass as a free museum and so it can compete with other, larger museums out of town.

"The aim is that it will secure our future so it's a real frustration that this has been such an ongoing problem and nobody seems to care." 

Problems reported to the council and police

Investment has been made to improve the facilities at the museum (Image: World of Glass)

Although Peter has reported the issues surrounding parking to the council and police, he said that nothing seems to have been done to improve the situation.

St Helens Council said that it is working to resolve the issues at the World of Glass, and insisted that council-run car parking charges are some of the lowest across the Liverpool City Region.

The imagined refurbishment at the museum (Image: World of Glass)

A spokesperson for St Helens Borough Council said: "We would always urge visitors to the town centre to park legally and conscientiously, or risk parking or police enforcement.

"There are some options we can explore if parking issues persist at The World of Glass, and we are working with them to investigate and resolve the issue. 

“There are several council-run car parks serving St Helens town centre, with fees among the lowest in the Liverpool City Region, reduced charges on Saturdays and free parking on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

"We remain committed to providing high quality, safe parking day and night to support businesses and the borough’s regeneration as part of the town centre masterplan."

World of Glass on Chalon Way (Image: Google Maps)