Tenby town councillors agreed at Tuesday evening's meeting not to comment on any licensing applications put before them. They feel that not enough details are provided, as under the new licensing act, they are not now considered a statutory consultee by Pembrokeshire County Council. Although many public houses have taken it upon themselves to send out further details of applications, councillors felt it would be unfair on other applicants to only pass comment on a select few. Clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, recently wrote to the county council's licensing department regarding the matter, bringing a number of members' concerns to their attention. However, principal licensing officer, Mr. Gareth Watts, wrote back, explaining that the county council was under no legal obligation to copy applications to responsible authorities as it had previously done, but had consciously decided to write to the town council to advise that an application had been made. "Whilst we would ideally like to copy each and every application to town council, county councillors etc, the 22-page form and the sheer volume of applications makes this extremely difficult to achieve," he stated.
