Pembrokeshire artist's gift to village obscured by parking sign

A mural painted to brighten up a village car park has been obscured by a large parking sign just months later.

The 1.5m (5ft) high pay and display sign in Solva, Pembrokeshire includes a large picture of the village itself.

Artist Raul Speek said he wanted to make a "gloomy car park a brighter and happier place" but now felt "shocked and disappointed" by the new addition.

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority said it had planning consent in place for its parking sign.

Mr Speek, 64, said: "It's like an act of vandalism."

Cuban-born Raul moved to the seaside village from London more than 20 years ago to run his art gallery in the town.

Raul said: "I painted this mural for Solva because it's my home, it's the place I love and it's my way of giving them something back."

"But I'm feeling very sad and very disappointed that the national park has chosen to put the stuff directly in front of it."

Mr Speek's mural was painted with permission onto the end of a privately owned building.

"Our only aim was to make the gloomy car park a brighter and happier place," he said.

Driver Pat Leyshon said: "It is a real jobsworth thing to do. Anyone else would have seen the sense of putting the sign anywhere else in the car park.

"The mural is very bright even on a grey day. Now it looks daft just being obscured like this."

The national park authority said it had "all the necessary paperwork in place for erecting the machine and signage".

"We have held a couple of discussions and explained our position with regard to the mural.

"The authority doesn't own the wall that the mural has been painted onto and our pay and display machine and sign was installed in accordance with a pre-existing planning consent," it added.