A Tenby councillor has proposed that the town council lodge a formal objection to plans by the county council to establish a new Welsh medium combined Infant and Junior School on a site at Heywood Lane, as they along with residents have not been formally consulted on the matter.

The authority plan to replace Tenby VC Infant School and Tenby Junior Community School in Heywood Lane, with an English medium primary school and a Welsh medium primary school, and implement the closures by August, 2016, with the new schools due to open the following month.

Residents of Serpentine Road, whose properties back on to part of the site, have already complained that they are being kept in the dark over the proposals and have had to read details of the proposals only through a public notice in the newspaper.

Plans to relocate Tenby Library at the site have also been mooted and residents say they are concerned that the development would result in the loss of important open green space, and have also sought the backing of local MP Simon Hart to help their campaign to prevent the school playing field from being built upon.

"As the Junior School is surrounded by roads and housing on two sides and playing fields on the other two, I am very concerned about where it is going to be built," said Mr Hart.

"I have had local residents get in touch with me who are greatly concerned - not only that the well-used playing field is likely to built on, but also worried that this would mean four schools within 100 yards of each other, leading to even greater parking and congestion problems.

"I fail to see how the existing playing fields and sports pitches can be retained if a new school is going to be built on them; the local residents need a lot more detail from Pembrokeshire County Council as this could have a big impact on them," added Mr. Hart.

Discussing the matter further at Tuesday night's meeting of the town council, town clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, told members that he was still yet to hear from the authority's director of education, Jake Morgan, on the issue, even though the consultation was due to end this Sunday.

"Despite reading in the press that the county council does intend to meet with us in order to discuss the matters that have been raised, I have not received a response from the director of education, and we're unlikely to before the consultation deadline now," said Mr. Davies.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter felt it was wrong that they were being kept in the dark over such a major issue, with her fellow councillor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown, suggesting that they contact the authority urgently on the matter.

"It's not on that we only get to know about matters through the press, how can we explain it to our electorate, if we don't know what's going on ourselves," she commented.

Clr. Lawrence Blackhall remarked that it wasn't just the town council and residents that were in the dark, but it appeared that the governing bodies at the three schools in Heywood Lane were equally unaware of the details of the proposals.

"Nobody has seen drawings or plans, yet the consultation is due to end this weekend," he said.

"This is unacceptable and I propose we launch a formal objection to the authority on the lack of consultation held with the schools, residents and town council," he added.

A spokesperson for the authority said that as part of the council's quest to meet the best possible educational needs of children and to achieve best value, cabinet decided at its meeting held in May to delay implementation of the new schools until September 1, 2016, to ensure that all construction work would be completed prior to the implementation of the new schools, a concern which was raised by many parents during consultation meetings.

"At its meeting on June 24, cabinet resolved to relocate the town library as part of the re-development - this decision was reached as a direct result of the consultation exercise in which members of the public were asked to suggest alternative sites for the facility," explained the spokesperson.

"However, it should be noted that no decision has yet been made with regards to a final location, other than to say it is likely to be integral to either the existing junior school or as part of the new school building, and subject to detailed design considerations.

"The county council will need to seek planning consent for the proposals (during which there will be further consultation as part of the planning process) as well as the appropriate impact assessments, including a traffic assessment.

"It is intended that the existing sports pitches and play areas will be retained, with the new English and Welsh schools and Greenhill School having shared access.

"As a result, recommended outdoor and pitch areas will be maintained and there will be no loss of green space," they added.