Sir,

Gentle reader, consider this. If you were a trader, a business owner in the town, would you, do you think, be sleeping easily in your bed?

Would you, do you think, be praising the county council for its help in difficult trading times? For the high rates imposed on the town. For the Scrooge-like free parking only at Christmas, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The banner said 'Happy Christmas'; it might well have added 'in spite of us'!

It is sad, isn't it, to see a town and people you care about being treated so shabbily and by a county council that seems very much to have lost its way.

So, at a time when you would naturally expect help and understanding from them, it comes as a shock to realise that unless they change there corporate policy or their agenda, whatever that may be, they just continue to aid and abet in the financial fall-out that is bringing the town to its knees.

I cannot think that this is a willful obstinacy, but rather an incomprehension, a misunderstanding of the 'direness' of our situation. There are many who believe Tenby is a community in crisis.

Now is surely the time for the town's balance sheet to be redressed. At the moment there is too much being taken out, too much on the debit side, far too little coming in, too little on the credit column - a healthy balance must be struck.

So for a start, why not overhaul the town's parking policy? An element of free parking seems the most compelling answer and this has and is being used to very great effect by more enlightened and forward-thinking county councils.

Free parking up to say 11 am and after 4 pm every day works in bringing people into town. Busy people shop with their wheels and the zealous enforcement team have stopped a lot of passing trade, meaning many now bypass the town to escape the hassle.

And finally it's a bit rich, isn't it, that 'boing', just like Zebedee, up pops another corporate head telling us just why there will be no free parking facility. Well now doesn't that jusr rub salt in the wound, coming as it does from the elite at Ivory Towers who have given themselves free parking as a perk, a freebie, a benefit for their own personal convenience - but tell us that we cannot have the same consideration as a necessity for the benefit of community. What an insult!

There appear to be many in Tenby who are losing or have lost faith in the policy makers at Ivory Towers and perhaps it is time for a new covenant to be made between us.

Any day at all, I expect there will be a leader's report from the CC (or have I missed it?) no doubt implying how lucky we are to have them. Whichever, in future they must understand that they will be judged on what they do - not what they say.

Ken Fryer,

Tenby