Pembrey Country Park — Attraction in Pembrey and Burry Port Town

This complaint is about the park staff, not the restaurant. Visitor centre staff are not helpful, caring, or friendly.

We expected it to be busy as it was a sunny day, so we went for food at the restaurant. We ordered two burger and chips, and were told of a 30–45 minute delay, which was fine. But it wasn’t very busy, only half the seats were taken.

After 40 minutes we saw others complaining they hadn’t had their food and were requesting refunds. After 60 minutes, we were about to leave, but after 65 minutes, our food arrived, incorrectly. Rather than wait again, we asked for and received a refund.

As we had used no other park facilities, we expected to be let out without paying for parking after explaining the situation. ANPR logs your number plate as you enter and you’re expected to pay before exiting. There’s an intercom at the gate to resolve issues.

Zoe, at the visitor centre, refused to let us leave. We politely explained we had come for food, didn’t get what we paid for, and left with a refund. But she insisted we must pay to exit, or the gate would remain shut.

This left me feeling trapped and questioning whether the situation amounted to unlawful detention or false imprisonment.

We had our Blue Badge on display. My partner and I are both autistic and have ADHD. This type of unexpected confrontation is especially distressing. Despite being polite, Zoe did not listen, showed no empathy, and sarcastically ended the call with: “I look forward to reading your email.”

We have the entire exchange recorded on dash cam.

While this review is for public awareness, we feel our experience raises serious questions about staff conduct and possible legal breaches.

Equality Act 2010 (Section 20 – Duty to Make Reasonable Adjustments) As neurodivergent visitors with a visible Blue Badge, we were visibly distressed. The duty to make reasonable adjustments does not require a formal declaration of disability—once distress is obvious, staff should act with care. Instead, we received sarcasm and obstruction.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 (Part 1, Ch. 2) The restaurant failed to deliver the food in the promised timeframe and got the order wrong after 65 minutes. We exercised our right to reject the service and were refunded. That should have concluded our visit. Charging parking after a failed service experience may be considered an unfair commercial practice, particularly where no other facilities were used.

False Imprisonment (common law) Blocking our exit by refusing to raise the barrier after hearing our full explanation may qualify as unlawful restraint. We were not dishonest or evasive, just visitors who had a failed experience and reasonably expected discretion.

Public Service Conduct – Nolan Principles As Pembrey Country Park is run by Carmarthenshire County Council, staff are bound by public service ethics: integrity, accountability, and respect. Zoe’s sarcastic “I look forward to reading your email” response was inappropriate and unprofessional.

We will now be submitting a formal complaint to the council and encourage others to do the same if faced with similar treatment. Public parks must remain fair, accessible, and welcoming, especially to disabled and...

Dog friendly, family friendly, walker friendly generally friendly place to go!

The red walk is great for when you fancy a quieter route although it can flood so bring wellies or go when the weather has been dry for a while.

Great shipwrecks to discover on the beach which gives you miles of sandy walks. Dog friendly all year round but restricted during summer months to the lower end of the beach but its not too far from the main carparks.

Ski slope and toboggan run are great fun and you can book lessons on the slope. There's also a skate park by the ski slope for kids.

Cafes serve lovely food and staff have always been nice.

Theres a new mini golf course which is popular but was closed due to covid so may not be back open yet.

Great playground for kids not too far from the carparks.

Theres a pond where your dogs can take a dip and grab a drink if they're a little sandy mouthed from their beach walk or just for a cool down when the weather is hot.

Theres orienteering points although some are missing their disks at the moment.

Parking is £3.50 for 2 hours or £6 full day. If you're doing a full day, pay for your ticket whenever you go past one of the machines as the queues get pretty hectic at the end of the day. Charges are lower during off peak season when the park goes quieter.

Great routes for cycling and cars tend to go nice and slowly so you can feel safe cycling on the roads as well as through the woods.

Public toilets spread out all over the main areas of the park and picnic areas including some brick bbq areas are available too.

View points by the beach look out towards Worms Head in Swansea and also all the way out to Tenby in Pembrokeshire and Pendine in Carmarthenshire. Watch out for the tides as they can come in fast. There are two exits from the beach from the lower area which is dog friendly, they both bring you back through the woods to the carparks if you need to avoid the tide. Just walk...

Great family day out, massively let down by one staff member interaction.

Visited on Sunday in March, with great weather. Haven't been to the park in many years. Arrived mid morning and initially stopped at the visitor centre to grab a drink in the cafe - reasonably priced and a good coffee. Also popped into the small shop that had most of the essentials for a family day out.

We then went on a walk from the caravan site through to the 'Bear' trail and pond, eventually finding the adventure playground that was very large and catered for a wide range of ages. Spoke to a campsite worker, who was very helpful in directing us on the various walks and made a few suggestions to help plan our day.

The mini train circuit was closed, however, it looked as if it was undergoing maintenance ready for the busier summer period - something we will look forward to on our return.

We then headed to the ski centre and bought one ride on the toboggan for £3.50, which included one adult and a small child (free) for one go. On queuing up, there were circa 30 people in line. It quickly became apparent that a birthday party was at the front of the queue with about 8 children. After having their go, they came back to the line and pushed to the front of the queue. It transpired the operator was allowing this, and whilst I was in the queue, the same party had 4 goes before I reached the front with my toddler. This added 20 mins to my queue time.

On reaching the front, I asked the operator what was happening and he was completely disinterested. Several other families also shared their frustration. The operator then started to berate the fact that I questioned the birthday party skipping the queue multiple times. By this time, the queue had also increased significantly, no doubt to the fact the party was having free reign on jumping the queue.

This was a really disappointing end to what had been an exceptional...