A meeting where a ‘Masterplan’ for Tenby was discussed has been described as ‘positive’ by the town’s Mayor.

Speaking at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, Mayor, Clr. Laurence Blackhall told his colleagues that the ‘Tenby Masterplan’ meeting held recently, had seen a ‘positive’ first set of discussions take place, to identify the type of things that the town wished to attract and gain from the project.

At the ‘Masterplan’ meeting, which was attended by representatives from Pembrokeshire County Council, members of the town council, Tenby Chamber of Trade and Tourism, Civic Society, and the Rotary Club of Tenby, PCC’s regeneration manager Sinead Henehan outlined the idea to develop ‘masterplans’ for the main towns across the county.

Clr. Blackhall opened the discussions by speaking of creating a ‘unitary vision’ Masterplan for Tenby’s future, and how it was an opportunity to set out the position of the town, its potential development opportunities, and how to develop these ideas working with external and internal agencies.

He said that this was a chance to shape the future of the town and they now needed to develop a clear strategic position whilst ensuring a sense of ownership and responsibility for delivery of that vision.

The Mayor remarked that they needed to be gathering ideas while also looking at new ideas, and look positively at what the town is seeking to do which, in his view, was to protect what was important, preserve it and enhance it.

Ms Henehan said that while the main focus of the Masterplans would be on the defined town centres, all factors needed to be considered in looking to achieve a realistic regeneration of the economy.

It was mentioned that the seasonality of the town was a major factor and focus should be given on how to attract people outside of the main season, perhaps with the creation of more events to draw people in.

Comments were made that Tenby needed to look at its unique selling points, and the quaint shops in Narberth were mentioned, but the Mayor felt that Tenby had just as many, only they were not as focused on one street, and as the town had some fantastic restaurants, should they be looking to position themselves for this market?

More also needed to be done to utilise the potential of the iconic harbour, whilst it was also suggested that as Tenby was an historic fishing port, the potential for boats to come in and out needed to be explored.

The Civic Society had been developing a major ‘characterisation study’ of the town which would examine what was unique about Tenby and what development opportunities existed, and this could be a useful tool.

The Mayor concluded that the town needed to be looking at taking things forward via a combination of this Masterplan committee and the town’s Regeneration Team. He hoped that by chatting to others the group would be able to draw out ideas and bring others in to the discussions.

Ms Henehan said that it would be important for this group to define what they wanted before any meeting with PCC’c consultants.