New digital signage on the entrance to Tenby has been labelled ‘horrendous’ by town councillors.

Members of Tenby Town Council also criticised the new ‘variable-message signs’ (VMS) situated at Bell’s Corner and on Marsh Road, erected by the Trunk Road Agency, for displaying what they described as ‘negative’ information on the weekend, by stating that the centre of the town was ‘closed’ between 1 and 8 pm, for the Carten Cardiff to Tenby cycle ride.

“Exactly what we didn’t want to see happen has happened with those new digital signs, by stating that Tudor Square was closed, when it was only closed to traffic!” remarked Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council.

“We can’t allow this to happen again, especially before an event such as the Long Course Weekend. Issues like this with technically incorrect information being given on those signs were the biggest fears that this town council had when we learnt about them being installed.

“Our fear was that negative signage would greet people into Tenby at the entrances, and we don’t want that.

“If the signs were to carry the message ‘car parking full’, for example, and that message was left up there for an hour without updating information on spaces, then even if just one car was to turn around, that would be a disaster!” she continued.

“The sign is horrendous, it takes away from the beauty of the ‘Welcome to Tenby’ sign in that area,” commented Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter.

“Now nobody will look at that, their focus will be on this huge digital sign,” she added.

The Mayor, Clr. Laurence Blackhall, suggested that a letter be sent to the Trunk Road Agency to make sure that information displayed on the signage was worded correctly.

“Perhaps we should give them a month, and see what happens, and then say we don’t want them!,” added Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown