Tenby's iconic Five Arches should be made a non-trading zone, town councillors reiterated this week.

Discussing street trading at their meeting on Tuesday night members said that the county council's streetcare department should make it a priority that traders and pedlars who had set up stalls in and around the Five Arches during previous holiday seasons, should be preventred from doing so again this summer.

The county council has recently reviewed arrangements for street trading, putting in place a revised policy to manage it, and is in the process of implementing operational arrangements to ensure its effective management.

Having now created the tools to effectively manage street trading, the county council state they are in the process of effecting the necessary management arrangements.

Clr. Mike Evans told his colleagues that the county council's streetcare manager, Marc Owen, was now hoping to have a consultation meeting with members of Tenby Chamber of Trade and town councillors in June.

"It's very early days, but we are working with Mr. Owen on these street trading issues and they have been enforcing new policies, as one of the ice cream vendors was being moved on during the recent holiday period, so they are not able to situate themselves in the same location for longer than 20 minutes," said Clr. Evans.

During discussions, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas said she would like to see the Five Arches taken out of any county council policy that would see it fall into the category of being an area designated for trading purposes.

"It looks like the beggars at the gate there some days in the summer. The street traders shouldn't be there, it's an iconic part of Tenby and people shouldn't have to fight to get through the numerous stalls and traders that congregate there," she remarked.

Clr. Lawrence Blackhall agreed and said that the Five Arches should be kept clear and be fully accessible. He also felt that no new licences should be issued until a proper review of street trading in Tenby was carried out.

Clr. Evans explained that, more often than not, pedlars and traders would be issued licences from other authorities and that it was not just the responsibility of the county council to decide who were given them.

"The main thing from this policy is to make sure that if we can't stop some of these traders coming in, then they are controlled while they are here in the town, so that they can't come in and set up for seven days a week in one location.

"There needs to be a mechanism to control them, a method to monitor them once they are in the town," commented Clr. Evans.

"Some people despise live music in the town, but some love it, while some don't like the hair braiders, but some young children are delighted to have their hair done.

"We just need to control it so that traders are not in the same spot all week long," he added.

Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane felt that it was unfair that businesses in the town who were paying high rates, were seeing some aspects of trade taken away from them by street traders coming in and selling similar products.

"I definitely would like to see a clampdown on certain things, as it's affecting people's livelihoods and I think there's too much leniency shown to some street traders.

"There's plenty of empty shops around the town, if someone wants to open up a business in Tenby. I mean we really don't need four ice cream vendors around the town do we," she said

Clr. Blackhall suggested that a policy should be put in place so that there should be no trading whatsoever around two to three metres of the Five Arches, with his colleagues agreeing.

"The main issue here is that these traders are spoiling the historic beauty of Tenby's Five Arches, so we need to put a stop to that," added Clr. Mrs. Julie Evans.