Plans for a new multi-million pound mixed-use scheme in Tenby that that will encompass the former Gatehouse Hotel site look set to be refused by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.

The plans, which are set to go before members of PCNPA's development management committee at their meeting next Wednesday, include the proposed construction of 39 apartments, a 68-bed hotel and retail development with on-site parking, amenity and new access road, on the site of the former Royal Gatehouse Hotel, which was destroyed by a fire in 2008.

Adjoining properties at Milford House and Kent House, the Royal Playhouse Cinema and land at Clifton Rock, are also included in the application submitted by South Terrace Properties Ltd, along with further proposals for the scheme, which include plans for the redevelopment of the Royal Lion Hotel in White Lion Street, and units at the Delphi Apartments in South Parade.

National Park officers have stated in their recommendations for the Gatehouse Hotel aspect of the scheme that - "insufficient information has been provided to fully assess the design of the proposal" and it is considered that the design has "not fully taken account of its context in Tenby town centre".

As a result, officers believe the scheme would be out of character with its location and an inappropriate form of development in this key location within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and Tenby Conservation Area.

FORUM OBJECTIONS

The Tenby Conservation Forum has also urged the National Park to reject the proposal in its present form.

The Forum has representatives from the Town Council, the Walled Town Residents Association and the Historical Society.

Following detailed evaluation of the development proposals, it wrote to the Park Authority in April with some 17 points that it asked to be considered. The architects conducted public consultations and addressed some of those points but not, in the view of the Forum, the most important ones.

As a result, a further letter was sent to the Park Authority urging rejection.

Amongst the issues that the Forum felt had not been adequately addressed is the need to replace the Royal Gatehouse Hotel on a like for like basis.

"The hotel was once the social centre of Tenby, providing public rooms that were extensively used by individuals and organisations. In its heyday it offered a high standard of accommodation, helping to make Tenby a preferred location for a wide spectrum of people," said a spokesperson for the Forum.

"The site of the old hotel is by far the best location in Tenby for a premium hotel with a high standard of facilities, yet the development proposals merely offer a budget hotel at the back of an apartment block. A reborn Royal Gatehouse will be good for jobs and investments in Tenby."

The Forum argues that the Park Authority has a once in a lifetime opportunity. If the Royal Gatehouse site is lost for use as a quality hotel, it will be lost for ever, and there is no other obvious location or opportunity to replace it.