A packed public meeting at Tenby's De Valence Pavilion heard the RNLI's chief civil engineer, Howard Richings, admit that failure to get planning permission for the new boathouse would pose "a problem", but "there is absolutely no suggestion that the RNLI would go elsewhere."
"If the plan is not acceptable, we will reassess the situation and do everything we can to find a solution," he stressed.
The public meeting was called by Tenby Town Council to enable the town to learn more of the RNLI's plans for a new boathouse
Based at RNLI headquarters in Poole, Mr. Richings is responsible for all RNLI building projects in the country.
He reminded the meeting, predominantly made up of the town's harbour users and residents, that there had been a lifeboat based in Tenby since 1852.
The current lifeboat station on Castle Hill was built in 1905 and had been adapted over the years to accommodate newer generations of RNLI sea-going lifeboats, the most recent being in the mid-1980s to accommodate the town's Tyne-class vessel the RFA Sir Galahad, which came into service in 1986.
The Tyne-class lifeboats were now coming to the end of their operational lifespan, Mr. Richings explained, and, as part of a rolling programme of redesigning lifeboats, the RNLI were looking to replace them with the new 25-knot FSB2, which was currently undergoing sea trials.
These new lifeboats were larger and heavier than the Tyne-class and would not fit in Tenby's current lifeboat station.
"When we designed the Tyne, we designed them to fit into existing boathouses," Mr. Richings explained. "Boathouses were built to last between 50 and 100 years, so most are also coming to an end of their lives from an operational point of view.
"This meant that the restrictions placed on us in having to have a lifeboat which fitted existing boathouses was gone.
"The FSB2 has been designed to work in the most effective way required by the RNLI and the first are planned to come into service within the next two to three years."
Mr. Richings said that the RNLI also had a rolling programme to upgrade facilities at lifeboat houses, with Tenby's present station falling far short of those requirements.
"It does not even have a toilet," he smiled.
Added to this, Mr. Richings said that Tenby had "suffered operationally due to siltration and low tides" around the present lifeboat slip and the RNLI now had an opportunity to address this limitation.
Mr. Richings explained that the RNLI had looked at three possible methods of launching, slipway, carriage launch or a permanently afloat lifeboat, and, for operational reasons, had plumped for a slipway launched vessel.
They had also looked at whether Tenby could be covered by neighbouring RNLI stations.
"The answer was no," he said. "There have been 82 launches in Tenby over the last five years. It is a key station and no-one else could fulfil that role."
The RNLI had been in discussion with the planning authority, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, since 1998 about possible designs of a new lifeboat station and had also prepared an environmental impact study, which would be submitted along with their planning application.
The proposal was to put the new slip and boathouse on the site of the former Royal Victoria Pier.
The station would be clad in cedar wood with a copper roof and would also include a tipping cradle - so the lifeboat could be stored horizontally for ease of maintenance - storage and training rooms, offices, toilets and viewing galleries.
If planning was granted, it was hoped that work would begin in autumn 2002, with a completion date expected in spring 2004, although weather conditions may cause a slight delay as all building would have to be carried out from the sea due to the nature of Castle Hill.
The question was raised as to what would happen to the old lifeboat station, a grade two listed building.
"The RNLI would have no further use for it, but we would be interested in suggestions," said Mr. Richings. "The RNLI would have to fund its demolition, so it's in our interest to find another use.
"There is nothing definite, but a low water landing stage has been suggested."
Questions were asked as to why Tenby could not have a carriage launched lifeboat, as some felt that Castle Hill was too environmentally sensitive an area to have such a large building.
This had been ruled out "for several reasons," explained Andy Clift, the RNLI's divisional inspector for the west.
The RNLI had considered a carriage-launched boathouse on the harbour sluice, but this too would have to be a large building which would have a "major impact" on the environs of the harbour.
"A carriage boat would also mean shifting to the Mersey-class lifeboat," said Mr. Clift. "These are already halfway through their lifespan and have greater operational limitations in comparison to the new FSB2."
"We also put the best lifeboat possible into a location," said Mr. Richings.
"A slipway station is our most costly option, so it is not something we enter into lightly."
Suggestion was also made as to why the RNLI could not use the projected £3 million cost of the new lifeboat station as a base for match-funding to enable the town to create a low-water landing stage or all-weather harbour.
"It may be possible, but there is no project of this nature at present in Tenby," said Mr. Richings. "If there was a plan well advanced with other funding avenues sourced, we would consider it, but as far as we see it there is no realistic possibility of an all-weather harbour in the town in the near future."
Mr. Clift agreed.
"While our preferred launching option is to have a boat afloat in an all-weather harbour, we can't wait for something that is more of a dream than a concrete scheme," he said.
It was suggested that a low water landing stage could be incorporated in the design for the new lifeboat station, but Mr. Richings said that this could not be done due to health and safety issues.
"The situation does exist in St. Davids, but it is something we are actively looking to change," he pointed out.
The majority of the meeting welcomed the proposals and the investment the RNLI were making, with many feeling that the new lifeboat station would be a tourist attraction rather than a deterrent.
At the close of the meeting, the RNLI agreed to leave their models, plans and artistic impressions of the proposed new lifeboat station on display in the foyer of the De Valence Pavilion for the next two weeks to enable the people of the town to examine them.