Town councillors have given their backing to a trial scheme at two locations in Tenby that would see shared use permit parking implemented.

Correspondence from Pembrokeshire County Council’s senior traffic engineer, Ben Blake, was presented to members of Tenby Town Council at their meeting on Tuesday night.

“As you are aware, cabinet on November 30, 2015, approved that a review of the council’s policy in respect of permit parking be undertaken by way of a 12-month trial in Tenby,” explained Mr. Blake.

The report recommended that the trial be based on option 3, which would allow: a) up to 50 per cent of the available parking be designated permit parking, or b) where there is evidence to support that further parking provision should be provided or amended to reflect demand, then up to a maximum of 75 per cent of the available parking for that street can be provided on either - a shared use basis, or 50 per cent is retained for permit holders only and an additional 25 per cent shared use.

Shared use parking forms a combination of limited waiting for general use and unrestricted parking for permit holders.

“It is proposed that the trial is carried out at two locations in Tenby, namely Culver Park and Southcliff Street. The justification for including both these streets in the trial is that parking patterns differ between each street, with parking on Culver Park predominantly full, compared to Southcliff Street, where the permit bays are often underutilised and remain empty for significant parts of the day.

“Examining both these scenarios will enable an assessment to be made as to how the policy can be applied in each of these circumstances and its overall effectiveness,” continued Mr. Blake.

“In terms of the shared use parking for both of these streets, it is proposed that two-hour limited waiting between 8 am to 6 pm, is used which will provide sufficient time for those wishing to visit residents or the town, reverting then to permit holders only between 6 pm to 8 am,” he added.

The proposed scheme has been circulated to residents for comment, and provided there is general support for the proposal, the experimental order will begin next month.

Responding to the proposals, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown thought it was a brilliant idea to trial it, whilst the town clerk told members that he was aware through email correspondence, that one resident of Culver Park was unhappy over the proposals.

“What do they want then at Culver Park, they don’t like an idea, and it gets put in the bin!” remarked Clr. Mrs. Brown, with Clr. Trevor Hallett commenting that perhaps they want their own personal parking spaces.

“We all live in the town and people don’t own the roads, so I don’t see what the problem is, I think it’s a good scheme,” added Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane.

Clr. Mike Evans informed his fellow councillors that he was submitting a ‘notice of motion’ to the county council, that following the success of the recently introduced off-street residents car parking schemes in areas such as St. Dogmaels and St. Thomas Green, that similar innovative schemes are brought in across other areas of the county where residents have either very little or no on/off-street parking provision.

“I hope this will aid residents who have parking schemes, and also those who live within the town walls,” he said.