Sir,
High summer has arrived, the fine weather bringing the visitors thronging into our walled town. Their spending power is the life-blood of businesses depending on increased income generated for such a short time each year. Without their patronage Tenby would be a ghost town. But with them come the traffic problems, reaching crisis pitch in August.
Space is minimal within our boundaries, our roads were never intended to accommodate the weight or numbers of vehicles, squeezed into impossibly limited highway space.
For years plans have been drawn up in an attempt to solve the issue, committees have debated at length, but all to no avail. A perfect solution seems as elusive as ever.
The central problem stems from lack of agreement between different factions within the town. Each one is bound to the narrow concept of denying pilot schemes the chance to succeed. The bottom line always rests on the assumption that radical change is synonymous with loss. The over-riding fear is that pedestrianisation will lose revenue and residents' freedom of choice will be limited, during a minimal four-hour daily ban in August.
In theory, such questioning is acceptable, but its effect is negative, as lack of compromise over the years has proved.
Large towns such as Cardiff and Swansea do not lack visitors because they are unable to park outside the large stores and precincts. Adequate car parks are provided and used without question, because this is the norm we expect nothing else.
Why then in Tenby do we have to suffer a nightmarish influx of traffic, which is so damaging to the beauty of our town? The answer is, that that is our norm, which we have endured for too long. It is time to move on and adapt to the inevitability of change.
As a disabled resident living near the harbour, I am more than aware of the limitations of a barrier strewn environment.
I have campaigned tirelessly for level entrances to public buildings, disabled parking facilities and drop kerbs. I have battled against the intransigence of bureaucracy steeped in traditionalism. On occasion frustration has overwhelmed me. Yet, very slowly over the last decade, changes for the better have made Tenby more disabled friendly. Each small advance has been gained through discussion and compromise.
Town award schemes have raised awareness. Shop premises are far more welcoming.
Pembrokeshire County Council has spent thousands of pounds on drop-kerbs, enabling easy access on and off pavements. Invariably, motorists park over them once our over-stretched traffic wardens are out of sight.
At present, St Julian Street could be aptly called Bottleneck Alley. Heavy vehicles travelling from Tudor Square to the harbour create traffic jams. This is especially dangerous, as they frequently mount the narrow pavements, cracking paving stones and forcing pedestrians to squeeze into doorways for safety. Dozens of cars making fruitless journeys to Castle Square, vainly seeking non-existent parking and spaces, are forced to turn around and remake their way up an ever-increasingly crowded road.
The whole scenario is an accident waiting to happen. Only then will something constructive be done to eliminate this fruitless parading of vehicles up and down a highway originally intended for Georgian carriages!
It will be too late then for compromise. Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted achieves nothing.
Every project has its disadvantages, but denial of implementation, effectively kills benefits which could result from radical change.
If we cannot agree within the town as to the best way forward, than we alone are to blame for a solution being imposed from the outside.
We obviously do not fully appreciate the merits of our beautiful resort, because we allow excessive traffic to destroy its tranquility at the best time of the year.
Once again yet another restriction scheme is about to be tested. We cannot assess its value until it has been given the opportunity to succeed or fail. For once, let us do just that.
Hazel Cook,
President of Pembrokeshire Access Group,
Little Rock House,
St. Julian Street,
Tenby.