A scheme to redevelop a café building on Tenby's North Beach promenade has been turned down by members of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority's development management committee.

The application for the change of use to the existing café and shop at the site, to a retail unit with extensions above to provide six holiday rental apartments, was unanimously refused by members of the development management committee at their meeting on Wednesday morning.

Although the authority's planning officers had said that they supported a redevelopment of the site in principle, as the buildings had deteriorated and were outdated, they stated that the proposal raised a number of issues that were contrary to both national and development plan policy.

They also considered that the proposal's design detailing, combined with its size and vertical emphasis, resulted in an overly dominant and visually incongruous building that would form a dominating structure in a highly sensitive and prominent location within the town, that would be detrimental to the character and appearance of the town's Conservation Area and special qualities of the National Park.

"I agree with the officers views, I don't think the scheme is badly designed its just too big on a site that is so prominent," said committee member David Ellis.

Committee chairman, Clr. Michael Williams, of Tenby, felt that any development at the location was going to be very difficult to achieve because of the logistics of the site.

"What's there now is unacceptable, it's an eyesore and it's not viable, but I'd like to see something achieved there and I don't think the designs are too far away, but it has to be viable and meet the requirements of the Park's policies," he said, with his colleague Clr. John Allen-Mirehouse agreeing.

"It is essential to get the right building design in that location. Now we have an opportunity to get it right, that is what we must do, as it will be something that is there for a 100 to 150 years," he remarked.