The planning of this year's Cafe Culture event in June has been thrown into disarray because Pembrokeshire County Council have not been able to support an expansion of the event across the town centre.
Apparently, difficulties in the county council's legal section have been part of the reason, as amendments would need to have been made to the street trading regulations, but the county council also had some worries about traffic circulation in the walled town.
Last year's event was generally regarded to be successful, and was well-supported by the business community, but some businesses made representations to Tenby 2020, asking for some changes to be made in the organisation of this year's event.
One change requested was to spread the event more widely across the town centre, to enable more businesses to benefit, particularly in St. George's Street and Upper Frog Street. The other change requested was to reduce the amount of street trading in Tudor Square. Some shopkeepers in the Square had felt that the Square had become too congested, and that the market stalls had blocked their shop-fronts.
Tenby 2020 therefore decided last autumn to seek approval from Pembrokeshire County Council to close the whole of the walled town to traffic on Sunday, June 16, between 11 am and 6 pm, except for emergencies, and to site the market stalls on the wide pavement along South Parade, just outside the town walls.
"Unfortunately, the county council have in the last few months lost the services of four out of their five solicitors," said Mike Thorne, chair of 2020, who explained that the council's head of legal services had recently written to the group to say that he had "been unable to progress the process required to re-designate certain streets in Tenby" under the street trading regulations.
In addition, there were some concerns from the council's traffic section about the proposed closure of St. George's Street and Upper Frog Street
"We were very disappointed with this response from the county council," Mr. Thorne told the Observer. "We have endeavoured to respond positively to requests for change from the business community, as the whole purpose of the Cafe Culture event (and indeed Tenby 2020) is to stimulate business in the town. We wanted to continue to demonstrate how attractive the town could be with less vehicular traffic in its heart, we wanted to help extend the season for tourists staying in the town, and add to the events which attract day visitors.
"However, we will be discussing with traders how we can still run this year's event on Sunday, June 16, even if we are restricted to Tudor Square and the High Street. We hope we will be just as successful as we were last year, if not more so.
"All traders would be welcome at our next meeting for Cafe Culture next Wednesday evening, at 6 pm in the Plantaganet's Bar."