Sir, I write in response to the letter from D. B. Clutton (Please use your heads, July 4) about the decision by Tenby Town Council to support a motion from Clr. Tish Rossiter, pressing for the old Tenby Cottage Hospital site to be used for affordable housing. I can assure Mr. Clutton that the town council's heads have not become detached from our hearts. Whilst I can appreciate his logic of using funds from selling off the site to develop affordable housing somewhere else, the recent experience in Tenby is that any county council land that becomes available is sold to the highest bidder, developed then for luxury flats, and the money disappears into the county council coffers. Tenby needs more luxury flats like Tenby residents need a hole in the head. There is a desperate shortage of affordable accommodation for young people, and a shortage of accessible housing for the elderly and infirm. There is, I understand, public money to fund such developments, but the problem is to find suitable sites. There are very few sites that are suitable becoming available, particularly in a small town like Tenby with the sea on one side and beautiful countryside on the other. It is therefore critically important that publicly- owned land that becomes available for development anywhere within the Tenby urban area should be prioritised for affordable housing. We know that the county council has to bear in mind the district auditor's requirement to get 'best value' when selling any land. However, we also know that if the county council determine that affordable housing is a priority supported by the people of Pembrokeshire, then the council is able to accept bids from social housing providers that may be less than the highest bids. We hope that for the benefit of those people in housing need in Tenby they will do just that. Clr. Mike Thorne, Southridge, Narberth Road, Tenby.
