Local councillors have called for a major crackdown on late-night partying on Tenby's beaches, before the situation ruins the resort.

At Tuesday night's meeting of the town council, members met with PCSO Mandy Goodland to voice their concerns about anti-social behaviour frequently occurring on some of the town's beaches.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter felt it was time that more CCTV was introduced to cover sections of the South Beach in particular, where she had heard that parties were taking place quite regularly recently.

"I was talking to one of the managers of the South Beach the other day and they said that there has been a lot more trouble going on at the beaches late at night lately," said Clr. Mrs. Rossiter.

"There's been tons of cans and bottles of beer and wine left from partying all over the beach and dunes and it seems to be worse than ever this year.

"It's not just locals who are responsible, it's others coming from away, too, who will join the parties, so you don't know who's around really and what trouble they are capable of causing.

"The other worry is the safety of youngsters going into the sea after a few drinks; it could end in a real tragedy," she claimed, with the town clerk adding that it had been reported to him that a number of broken bottles of alcohol had also been found near Castle Hill on Monday.

PCSO Goodland said she and fellow officers had been patrolling and monitoring the beaches more than ever lately because of the increase in youngsters drinking and over one weekend recently they confiscated three full bin liners of alcohol from such parties.

"We've been issuing the Section 27 notices that have just been introduced to escort those who are likely to cause alcohol-related crime or disorder out of the town for up to 48 hours, and as a follow on from taking alcohol off under age drinkers, we have also been contacting their parents too," said PCSO Goodland.

Inspector Tim Hoad, of Tenby police station, recently described the Section 27 notice as an effective tool for officers to tackle incidents of anti-social behaviour.

"In Tenby, it can be used to target persons partying on the beaches or persons visiting the town who are drunk, abusive and misbehaving," he explained.

Tenby's Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Julie Evans, said she hoped the situation would continue to be monitored by the police.

"Something like this could ruin Tenby if it got out of hand," she said.

Further to the discussions at the meeting, Tenby's fire crew were called out shortly after 9 pm on Tuesday evening to attend a rubbish fire which had been started in a waste bin on Castle Beach.