Time could be served on drinking in a beer garden of a Tenby pub after the owner of the premises failed to comply with a notice to remove decking which had been erected without permission.
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority had informed its development management committee back in November of 2007 that it planned to take appropriate legal action to secure the removal of decking and balustrading, which had been erected without the benefit of planning permission or listed building consent at the Hope and Anchor Inn in St. Julian's Street.
Subsequently, in 2008, a listed building enforcement notice was issued to the premises' owner, who happens to be Clr. Mike Evans, a member of the authority's development management committee, to remove the unauthorised decking and reinstate the beer garden to its former condition.
With no appeal submitted, the notice took effect in March of 2008, requiring the necessary works to be completed by the following month.
Although a planning application seeking retention of the decking was submitted by the pub's owner in June 2008, members of PCNPA's development management committee resolved to refuse the application on planning policy grounds.
Discussions between the authority's planning officers and the owner subsequently took place, finally resulting in an acceptable design and layout for the beer garden, involving the removal of the unauthorised works and a new design which was granted planning permission in May 2009, subject to a condition requiring the works to be completed within six months.
However, following a site inspection last December, the authority's officers discovered that no remedial works in accordance with the planning permission had been carried out.
At a meeting of the authority's development management committee on Wednesday, members voted unanimously to seek prosecution against the owner of the premises.