A rally cry has been made by the mayor of Tenby and her fellow councillors, for the community to ‘work together’ to raise the standards of the town, stating that the resort must not settle for ‘mediocre’.

Speaking at Monday night’s meeting of the town council, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane reaffirmed comments she made at Friday’s mayor making ceremony held at the De Valence, with regards to the people of the town pulling together to help the resort in the current economic climate, with budget cuts being implemented across council services.

“We must not settle for mediocre, we have to up our game - we need an enthusiastic group to take us forward!” remarked Clr. Mrs. Lane to her guests and colleagues at the mayor making ceremony.

“We need people with not just ideas but the urge to carry out these ideas, and groups that will take on their own neighbourhoods, and people to maintain the town.

Clr. Mrs. Lane urged fundraisers, gardeners, designers, and anyone willing to give their time, to come forward, even if it was for only one hour a week.

“We must work together, we must raise our standards. Just remember, first impressions are vital to ur economy,” she added.

Raising the matter again at this week’s town council meeting, Clr. Mrs. Lane told her fellow councillors that she didn’t think that people realised how bad things were, and proposed that an urgent public meeting be arranged.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown said that anybody that walks around the town can see that weeds are growing up the town walls and in the gutters, but despite Pembrokeshire county council cleaning the roads and pavements, they seemed to ignore these issues. She also said that it didn’t help the cause when PCC carry out their street cleaning at the wrong times, pointing to the recent Bank Holiday weekend as an example.

Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas agreed that the town walls and the South Parade in particular were in a poor state.

“The weeds are doing damage to our historic town walls. These walls should have been looked after for years by PCC. It’s not until the trees were cut down that you realise the state they’re in.

“The walls need some urgent attention, they are our heritage. PCC have the responsibility, but have got no money now, so we need to write to the likes of CADW, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, and our AMs to see if anything can be done. The walls are also being disrespected by PCC allowing the blue bins to be left up against them. It’s disgusting and should not be allowed!” she added.

The town clerk, Andrew Davies said that he had invited Tenby’s ‘liaison link officer’ Richard Brown, who is also PCC’s head of environment and civil contingencies, to the meeting, but he was unable to attend. Mr. Davies told councillors that Mr. Brown had suggested that the issues they were concerned about were ‘operational matters’ and gave the ‘usual mantra’ of budget cuts as one of the reasons for such problems.

“He understands people’s expectations, but suggests that there has got to different ways to meet them,” said Mr. Davies.

Clr. Mrs. Brown said it was ‘really poor’ on PCC’s part, as the link officers were supposed to come to one meeting a month.

Clr. Mrs. Lane said that an urgent meeting was required and a walkabout of the town by the ‘gardens, maintenance and general purpose’ committee.

“We need to get a decent, really strong town team together and go from there,” she added.

The public meeting was arranged to take place at the De Valence Pavilion on Wednesday, May 23, at 6 pm, with anyone wishing to come forward with help and ideas, urged to attend.