Councillors in Tenby have requested that businesses and residents in the town and locality be asked for their own personal feedback on this month’s Long Course Weekend.

Correspondence from Pembrokeshire County Council’s street care and parking manager Marc Owen came before members of Tenby town council at their meeting on Tuesday night, requesting feedback on the event.

Extensive road closures featured for the first time of the sporting event’s cycling leg on the Saturday, as well as road closures for the marathon on Sunday, and a closure of the Croft on Friday evening for the swim.

“As part of any major event, we would welcome your feedback in order to review the impact,” said Mr. Owen, with points welcomed on - road closures, general traffic management, parking issues, community impact, public liaison pre-event, public perception of event pre and post, overall impact on the community - listing positives and negatives, future improvements, and general observations.

“We will be holding a debrief with the event organiser so your comments will be fed back in,” added Mr. Owen, asking for feedback by August 2.

Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane told her colleagues that she felt that this request for feedback from PCC, who authorised the road closures, should be passed around to the community’s businesses and residents.

“It’s important that they have their say too, the organisers and PCC have got to have the full feeling of the people of the town,” she said.

Clr. Mrs. Lane said that she was not against the event, but more consideration and better organisation was needed for people living, and trying to get in and out of Tenby over that weekend.

“It was overheard on several occasions by marshals telling people, that they couldn’t go that way or this way as ‘Tenby was closed for the day’.

“Also the noise in Tudor Square was way too loud! There is nothing wrong with a bit of music, but do they have to start that early and have the volume so loud. There are people living there after all - are they aware of that,” continued Clr. Mrs. Lane.

Clr. Mrs. Tracey Evans agreed that the organisation and information being passed out by marshals to members of the public, left a lot to be desired.

“On the Sunday I needed to get out, but nobody seemed to have a clue amongst the marshals on what was going on or how to get out. The police said that they’d only had a five minute briefing on the event,” she remarked.

Clr. Matthew Ronowitz said that he felt that the Saturday road closures ‘pushed things over the edge’ somewhat.

“People seem to have accepted the Sunday disruption a bit more, but it seems a bit unfair closing so many roads on the Saturday as well. Two days seems too much.

“Also, some of the road signage needs to be made a lot clearer, as people get confused by what is ‘westbound’ as such,” he commented.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown said that the weekend was ‘brilliant’ for the town, and felt that local people and anyone visiting the town had been given enough warning on the road closures, but agreed that some of the marshals needed to be providing more guidance.

“Judging by the droves of people coming into the town council offices on the Friday asking about the road closures, it seems that some weren’t prepared,” she said.

“There were still people confused over the weekend, about how to get here, or that they couldn’t get there.

“Many of the marshals didn’t seem to know enough to tell people. Like Ironman Wales, the organisers of the LCW should have a thorough volunteer/marshal meeting before the event.

“I do agree too that some of the marshals situated in Tudor Square were rather bossy and a bit sergeant major like! If they were a little more friendly, then I’m sure it would go a long way,” added Clr. Mrs. Brown.

The Mayor of Tenby, Clr. Tony Brown said that he took part in Saturday’s cycling event, and really did feel safer out on the course, due to the road closures.

“The marshals out in the rural areas and countryside were great from what I experienced - but yes, maybe a couple in the town centre were a bit boisterous. It’s the first year of road closures for the cycling event, so yes it is a learning curve, but from a safety aspect, it’s important.

“I think the town may have been mildly disrupted, but not massively. You could get into Tenby and there were ways of accessing most areas around the locality.

“If you pushed the event to another time of the year then you will cause more disruption potentially to the centre of Tenby, as it will fall outside of pedestrianisation,” he added.