Plans for the future of Tenby came under the spotlight at a special meeting last week.

A vision for secondary education, the summer traffic ban and an enhancement scheme for the town centre were all topics discussed at an Open Meeting of Tenby 2020 last Thursday.

Three guest speakers who addressed the meeting were Mr. Chris Noble, headteacher of Greenhill School, Mr. Roger Barrett-Evans, director of development at Pembrokeshire County Council, and the authority's director of transport and environment, Mr. Ian Westley.

Mr. Noble spoke of his vision for the future of secondary education for the Tenby area, the need to provide a widening choice of studies for the students, the need to resolve accommodation problems, and the constant demand to raise standards.

"There were opportunities to pool resources with adult facilities, to benefit school and community," said a spokesman for Tenby 2020 afterwardsy.

"Options to develop the existing site or to relocate to a new site were being examined. An entirely new school building would cost about £25m."

A lively discussion followed, before Mr. Westley spoke of the experimental pedestrianisation scheme for the walled town for this summer.

On first arriving in his job last November, he had been concerned about the lack of consensus on how to proceed, but took comfort from the fact that there was a great deal of support for the principle of restricting traffic, and that it would be impossible to suit everybody.

He found support from the Welsh Assembly Government for a further experiment, to allow some limited access for residents with off-road parking facilities.

So with that addition, the scheme would be similar to last year's.

There was some discussion about the needs of residents without parking facilities to load and unload, and the need for better enforcement of the traffic regulations.

Mr. Barrett-Evans was the third speaker who spoke about the enhancement scheme for the High Street and Tudor Square.

The first 'demonstration' stretch now under construction and he said the county council hoped to carry out the second phase, as far as Tudor Square, in the autumn, along with Tudor Square in 2005, subject to funding.

He also described the initial thoughts of consultants DTZ Pieda, who had been asked to consider the development potential of the two main county council car parks - the multi-storey and Butts Field.

In both cases there were suggestions that some new housing on the edge of the car parks (e.g. in front of the multi-storey), which could help fund enhancements and increases in capacity. These ideas were welcomed.

Chair of the meeting, Chris Osborne, gave an update on progress with the Objective One application for supporting the Tenby Town Partnership and the De Valence Trust.

It had all taken longer than initially anticipated, but it was expected that they would get an approval soon.

Secretary of TENBY 2020, Mike Thorne, said that in any event the new De Valence Trust would be taking over the building from the Town Council on April 1, and an enthusiastic bunch of Trustees were working on an expanded programme of events. The idea was to build up the business before making bids for major capital grants.

Mr. Thorne also gave an update on the objections lodged on the Pembrokeshire Joint Unitary Development Plan, in respect of the proposal to allocate a site at New Hedges for a business park and supermarket.

"Our case had been presented at the public inquiry on March 11 and 12, and it went well, though we willd now have to wait about a year for the result," he said afterwards.

Mr. Osborne also raised the proposal for commercial cockling on North Beach, and it was agreed that the group should protest to the relevant official bodies.

The date of the next Open Meeting of Tenby 2020 was not fixed, but it is expected that it will be in about three or four months time.