Claims Tenby’s new Brynhir housing development will house “illegal immigrants” through purchases by an English council have been refuted by Pembrokeshire County Council.

Back in 2024, the scheme, with nearly 100 “local houses for local people” was approved by national park planners.

In 2018, Pembrokeshire County Council, which already owned the 15-acre Brynhir site on the edge of Tenby, ‘bought’ the land for £4million using its Housing Revenue Account.

Campaigners fought a two-year battle against the use of the land for housing, calling for protection for ‘Tenby’s last green space’ and fearing it would become a ‘concrete jungle’.

The county council was granted outline planning permission by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for the development of 144 properties – including up to 102 affordable units – in 2020.

The later 2024 scheme proposed that only 125 houses be built, 93 of them affordable, and, of the 32 open market dwellings, 16 are shared ownership properties.

Tenby Civic Society has raised numerous concerns to the scheme and 20 objections were also received from members of the public, raising concerns including loss of green space, traffic issues, privacy, design, visual impacts and the scale of the development, sewage capacity, the site being no longer allocated for housing, potential antisocial behaviour within the play area, and a limitation on second homes/holiday lets being required.

At the September meeting, concerns about the proposal were raised by Jane Merrony of 1,100-member Tenby Green Space Preservation Society, who said it was inappropriate in its proposed location and “a visual intrusion which will be seen from Caldey Island”.

Initial work for the much-antcipated Brynhir scheme commenced at the start of November by developers Morgan Construction Wales, with completion anticipated by summer 2029.

New native hedgerows and more than 280 individual trees have been planted as part of the new entrance to the housing site.

However, fears have been raised that some of the site will house “illegal immigrants” via an English council.

A member of the public raised their concerns saying: “Unconfirmed rumours have it that Liverpool City Council has bought houses in the development as their waiting list is so long due to illegal immigrants being housed in their stock, making it a 10-year waiting list to get local housing in Liverpool.

“Does this mean that Liverpool City Council will be offloading illegals onto the Tenby social housing?”

They added: “When the planning permission was going through, we were informed that all the housing would be mixed council, open-market and association houses with a covenant saying that you had to live, work or have links to the area to be considered for any of the units.”

Responding to the claims, a Pembrokeshire County Council spokesperson said: “These rumours are untrue. This site is owned and managed by the local authority.

“Allocations will be made to those from our Choice Homes register in accordance with a local connection lettings policy that will be developed in conjunction with the local town and community councils, and local community, in due course.”