Councillors in Tenby met with their new liaison link officer this week, who told them that it was up to Pembrokeshire County Council to engage better with communities and town councils in the future to understand what needed to be prioritised.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, the county council’s head of environment and civil contingencies, Richard Brown, who is also now the authority’s liaison link officer for Tenby, met with members to talk about his role.

“I volunteered to come to Tenby to take on the role as I love it with a passion, and we need to work together to make it a better place,” he told members.

“I’m not here as a complaints officer, I want to work with the town council and genuinely consult with yourselves before decisions are made. I’m not against criticism, as long as it’s constructive criticism,” he added.

Mr. Brown told members that it was important to try and minimise the impact of financial cuts in the area which had stemmed from the Welsh Government’s funding withdrawals.

“As a consequence of that, certain areas within the county council have been restructured, so we face massive cuts and a change to services in the next few years,” he said.

“We need to try and achieve a vision for Tenby and how that fits in with the strategy of the county council. The idea of me as a link officer is about trust building, so that it is made sure we have a voice here in Tenby that can be fed into the chief executive at PCC and cabinet,” continued Mr. Brown.

Clr. Mike Evans said that most town council clerks acted as the eyes and the ears of PCC, but when a service failed, people believed that it was the town council’s fault, when it wasn’t.

“Our town clerk must have a good rapport with the county council, but the frustrating thing is that when he informs them of a service fault, and it doesn’t get done, then there is a breakdown of service,” he said.

“PCC have a million pound switchboard to contact, but people still believe it is the town council that is responsible when they complain to our offices,” added Clr. Evans.

The town clerk, Andrew Davies, said that certain departments in the county council were often very reluctant to respond to emails sent by the town council.

“There is a certain officer at director level who we sent a question to over a month ago and still have not had a response to it!” said Mr. Davies.

Clr. Evans said that there was a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ in that a percentage of the sum raised from the second home surcharge should go towards affordable housing and also community improvements.

“If you talk to the people in Tenby, then I’m sure the surcharge on second homes would be a lot easier to accept if they were to see that resource spent in the town,” agreed the Mayor, Clr. Laurence Blackhall.