Residents within Tenby's historic walled town have called for the people of Tenby to make their views known following Pembrokeshire County Council's decision to extend its controversial traffic ban next summer.

Despite outcry from some groups of businesses and residents, Tenby's walled town was closed off to all but emergency vehicles from 12 noon to 4 pm daily throughout August this year.

On Monday, the county council's cabinet accepted a proposal by director of transportation, Mr. Huw Roberts, that the pedestrianisation be extended to take in all of July, with the traffic ban starting earlier in the day, at 11 am, and ending later at 5 pm.

Mr. Roberts told the cabinet that the county council had spent "a lot of time canvassing the views of the residents and businesses in the town and visitors and analysing the feedback."

There had been surveys conducted by the Tenby Walled Town Residents Association (TWTRA) and the Commercial Ratepayers, as well as a comment book placed in the De Valence Pavilion by Tenby Town Council.

The county council had also conducted their own survey.

Of 3,500 questionnaires handed out, around 44 per cent of people had replied, while of 321 questionnaires sent to businesses, 140 had been returned.

He said that there were two main issues, one the making of White Lion Street one-way, and the second the pedestrianisation of the walled town.

On White Lion Street, Mr. Roberts said that there had been 90 per cent support for keeping the road open to two-way traffic, and his recommendation was that this be so for the time being.

OVERWHELMING

SUPPORT

Mr. Roberts also said that there was "overwhelming support" for a repeat of the pedestrianisation scheme next summer.

He said that some people wanted the town pedestrianised 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, while others were "more modest" and his proposal was that the scheme be extended to cover the months of July and August and that the daily period of pedestrianisation be extended from 11 am to 5 pm from next year onwards.

Mr. Roberts also suggested that the ban prohibiting large goods vehicles should operate between these hours, instead of starting at 10 am, as it does now.

"I know that some people will be unhappy with the proposal, but others will be unhappy that it does not go far enough," commented Mr. Roberts. "This is a reasonable way forward to enable café culture to be enhanced."

Mr. Roberts also proposed "liaison with the main funding agencies, like the Welsh Development Agency and the Wales Tourist Board, with a view to indentifying funding for "a complementary programme of environmental improvements."

RESIDENTS TRAPPED

Mr. Roberts acknowledged that some walled town residents felt the prohibitions "trapped them or denied them access to their own properties" and he believed that there "was still some work to do on the authorisation of journeys within the walled town."

He felt that permits would not give the same control over traffic movements as having each journey authorised, and added that there was more work needed on what basis such authorisation would be given.

Leader of the council, Clr. Maurice Hughes, commented that both local members, Clrs Mickey Folland and Michael Williams, were in favour of Mr. Roberts's proposals, while Clr. Brian Hall, the cabinet member responsible for transport and the environment, felt that the scheme was "25 years late."

"This should have been implemented as far back as that," he said.

"The majority of visitors think it's great and the majority of residents like the principle. It is essential we use August's experiment as a platform for improvement."

Clr. Hall claimed that most of the comments in Tenby Town Council's comments book were supportive of the scheme and, while there were differences in the views of walled town residents and commercial ratepayers' surveys, the county council survey showed 64 per cent of people in favour of pedestrianisation being extended.

PERMANENT FIXTURE?

"I hope it will be a permanent fixture and even extended in future years," he said.

Clr. Mrs. Pat Griffiths explained that she had spoken to TWTRA at the weekend, where it had been outlined to her how the experiment had "impinged on certain businesses and life living within the town walls."

"In their place I would be looking at this as well," she admitted. "They told me that they want authorisation to carry on their lives in a normal way and, if permits are issued and abused, they should be taken off the holder."

Clr. Bill Roberts congratulated the director on his report, feeling that the situation "should have been attended to many years ago."

He felt that any scheme would have winners and losers, with the winners in this case being those who experienced relief from Tenby's traffic congestion.

"Tenby on a busy summer's day is a nightmare," he pointed out.

However, Clr. Roberts was concerned that the needs of the elderly and disabled were taken into account, as were the needs of residents of Caldey Island, a point also raised by Clr. Brian Howells.

Mr. Roberts pointed out that "a number of dispensations were given to the disabled last August," and their needs "would be covered."

He added that there appeared to be different messages from the different surveys, but "confidence" in surveys depended on various factors, including not only the contents, but response rates.

He said that the "magical number" for responses was 100, but the surveys by the TWTRA and the Commercial Ratepayers had well under this figure.

"One of the letters said if you can dream you can do it," commented Clr. Hall. "Well I have a dream and we can do it.

"There is still fine tuning to be done, nothing is written in stone and things can be altered to eventually come up with a scheme that everyone is happy with."

DISAPPOINTED

WITH DECISION

However, speaking after the meeting, Mr. Richard Walker, chairman of the TWTRA, expressed his disappointment with the decision.

He felt that not enough evidence of the "hardship" endured by some sectors during the ban had been presented to the cabinet and said that the issue was "not over by any means."

"Clr. Hall said he had a dream, well I hope he can sleep easy, because this is going to cause a lot of people nightmares," he said.

"The new scheme now breaks into the school term. How do residents get their children home? Do people who have meals on wheels now have to have them at 10.30 am?

"The county council are just repeating and extending a situation that was not successful, whatever they claim. The whole situation has been hurried through, and only one meeting of the 'sounding group' post pedestrianisation is not enough to glean sufficient information.

"We are very grateful to Clr. Mrs. Griffiths for meeting us, but disappointed the decision has been passed without the issue of authorisation of journeys being properly resolved. It seems a very messy way of devolving democracy.

"As the director of transportation saw fit to rubbish our survey, then we will now question their survey."

Mr. Walker added that the association would now be seeking legal advice as to whether the ban breached the Human Rights Convention and the Disability Discrimination Act.

"There were a lot of heart-rending tales from people who experienced extensive problems and this hardship has not been taken into account.

"The council say they will operate the same system for authorising journeys as last year, but why should people have to ring up and ask permission to leave their house?"

ACCESS NEEDED

TWTRA vice-chairman, Mr. Alistair Mackay, agreed.

"We are not against pedestrianisation, but there should be some form of access," he commented.

"We were disappointed that both our county councillors appear to support this new scheme, because there are so many problems that have yet to come out of the woodwork," he continued. "Caldey Island residents said they just about coped during the last experiment, now the timescale has been increased. How will visitors arriving in the town to get to holiday flats feel to be told they can't get to them until 5 pm.

"We just don't know what all the problems of this extended scheme may be, and we're not convinced that the people of Tenby want this.

"They seem to have been given the choice of pedestrianisation or access, but they do not have to make that choice, there can be room for both.

"We invite the people of Tenby to stand up and make their thoughts on this extended scheme known, so that the groundswell of public opinion can be heard."

However, Mr. Mike Thorne, of Tenby 2020, who was also at the meeting, welcomed the cabinet's decision.

"I'm very pleased with the outcome," he said. "It is in accordance with the wishes of the majority of visitors, residents and businesses.

"It is in the long term interests of Tenby that we have pedestrianisation in the peak season, as this will increase the number of visitors who enjoy a visit to Tenby.

"We welcome the recommendation for further discussions on access for residents, although we will be taking up a few issues that were included in the report, but not the recommendations, including improved signage and parking for residents on the top of the multi-storey car park, to secure these if we can."