Sir, 'Concerned Tenby Lover' is quite wrong about Tenby Civic Society and the 'Hole in the Wall.' Cromwell is not the problem; but the CAR and CADW are; the Civic Society were on the case of the hole in Clifton Rock House's frontage stone wall two-and-a-half years ago (February 2002) when we wrote to the planners at the National Park about the appearance of the hole in the wall. After a pause, a planning application was made to demolish more of the wall to create an access for a proposed car park; the Civic Society made detailed objections to Tenby Town Council and the National Park. The application was withdrawn. Unauthorised parking continued on the site. CADW came and inspected the walls and found no evidence for them being Civil War outworks; the walls' construction, thickness, foundations and lack of earth embankments inside point to a later construction date than the Civil War and a peaceful purpose, not a military defence to resist Cromwell's cannon fire. So CADW de-registered the three sections of wall, thereby removing them from the Ancient Monuments Register. The only legal protection the walls retained was as part of a listed building, with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park as the responsible planning authority. We see reasonable evidence for the walls being at least 18th century, but anyone with firm evidence for them being earlier should give it to CADW and the National Park immediately! Ironically, the walls appear to be older than their house, yet are more at risk. Since then, the Society has contacted the National Park's enforcement, conservation and development control sections, drawing their attention to the widening of the hole, the construction and use of a second unauthorised parking area and requesting enforcement action. The fate of all the frontage wall now hangs in the balance as a planning application is currently being considered by the Park to demolish all the remaining frontage stone wall, build a flat, two garages and a parking area, a vehicle access and to rebuild half of the wall in a lower form with a different capping, but allowing a rather wider pavement. The Society has submitted detailed constructive objections and comments that allow for several outcomes, but preserving as much of the wall as possible, in situ or in replica. An alternative access to that proposed is possible, but this involves an adjoining owner's land. Following businesses around the Norton-Croft junction protesting at the state of some properties there, the Society contacted some owners with suggestions for simple and rapid cosmetic improvements to properties' appearance. We found several steps were already planned or happening; weeding and painting, for example, and an attractive package of exterior renovation proposals have just been submitted to the Park planners for the Ocean Hotel, to go with those previously approved on nearby properties on the Norton. So there is progress and promise of more. The longer these promises take to deliver, the longer the hole in the wall saga goes on, the more of our thousands of visitors will go home thinking what I heard one say on the corner of the Croft and the Norton several weeks ago, "It's not like Tenby to be tatty." Then the fewer of them will come back. 'Concerned Tenby lover' is quite right that buildings in Tenby seen by thousands of visitors are better if in good repair, with smart paintwork and pointing etc; we can all agree with that, but buildings also need to be in productive use to pay those bills - that is a problem in the owners' laps, so they can need some time to sort it and get to the standard of other premises, before the rest of us start whingeing and getting on their backs, however much we love this lovely town and however possessive we feel over its every nook and cranny.
Harry Gardiner, Chairman, Tenby Civic Society,
7 The Glebe, Tenby.