Tenby's police chief, Inspector Les Clark, has responded to a complaint from a local hotelier about what he felt was a slow response time to an incident he had reported to them. Mr. Graham Fry wrote to the Town Council and also to Dyfed Powys Police, criticising the police for not responding quick enough, after he notified them of a fight taking place between two groups of males in the town's South Parade. "I would make a request that you investigate this very serious incident and that the policing of Tenby is taken a great deal more seriously and practices are put in place so that this sort of incident is dealt with quickly and professionally and not left to pick up the casualties of war on the streets," wrote Mr. Fry. However, at a recent meeting of the Town Council, members received a written response from Insp. Clark, defending the policing of the town and his force's response times to calls. "I am pleased to tell you that for the whole of last year, my officers improved on the force attendance time target for emergency calls in the Tenby area by one per cent," he pointed out. "Additionally, 71 per cent of all emergency calls in the town were attended by officers within 10 minutes." Insp. Clark went on to reveal that when patrol officers received the call in question, they had already been tasked to search for an 80-year-old person who had been reported missing. "The officers were diverted to the South Parade, but within seconds of this instruction they found the missing person, returned the gentleman to his carers and then made their way to the incident in Tenby, managing to report arrival at the scene within 20 minutes, and found the situation to be calm and controlled," explained the inspector, who added that all parties involved were spoken to and an investigation into what had occurred held. "I firmly believe that supervisors will always have to prioritise and I am content that the officers made the right decisions in connection with the incidents that they dealt with as outlined," he concluded. The letter was noted by members of the council.
