Councillors in Tenby have been given an update on developments at the town’s Brynhir site, after stating that they had been provided with a ‘lack of information’ by the authority on the proposed sale of the land.

Members of Tenby town council have previously requested to be kept informed on any discussions between PCC and developers so that the best option could be achieved for the people of the town when it came to developing the land, but had voiced their concerns prior to the Christmas period, that they were still being ‘kept in the dark’.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council correspondence from Barry Cooke, PCC’s head of property came before members.

Mr. Cooke stated that a marketing exercise had been undertaken by the appointed agents Cooke and Arkwright, and as part of this interested parties were advised that the National Park’s aspiration for affordable housing was 50 per cent.

“As part of the process, developers were instructed that they should include the assumptions of deliverability of affordable housing that they made as this would form part of the consideration process by the council,” stated Mr. Cooke, explaining that offers received included affordable percentages ranging from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.

Mr. Cooke explained that over the course of a number of months the identified developer amended its proposal to such an extent that it was no longer sufficiently close to the original proposal to satisfy ‘procurement’.

“PCC officers and the agents met with the identified developer again to establish whether the proposal could be brought back in line with the original one received, but this proved impossible,” continued Mr. Cooke.

“Officers are therefore recommending that the agents re-approach all of the parties who previously expressed interest in the site to ascertain whether they would reconsider the opportunity along similar lines to the revised offer on the table from the currently identified developer,” he wrote.

In addition to the main site, Mr. Cooke informed councillors that officers were also in discussion with housing colleagues regarding an adjacent field which might also be made available for development.

“Whilst this field is not currently within the PCNPA Local Development Plan housing allocation, discussions have been held with their planning officers and there is a possibility that the site could be delivered for 100 per cent affordable housing as an exception site. This could be a potential scheme, in addition to the main site. We will continue to explore this potential opportunity,” added Mr. Cooke.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter thanked Mr. Cooke for his update, but said it would be good to know what ‘additional field’ he was referring to.

Clr. Mike Evans said that the most important part of the statement referred to the affordable housing element.

“I don’t think the lower part is acceptable to us, it should be a minimum of 30 to 35 per cent, and I’d advise that we strongly write back to Mr. Cooke and PCNPA reminding them of what our expectations area,” said Clr. Evans.

The Mayor Clr. Laurence Blackhall agreed and said that the town council had a strongly stated policy over affordable housing for Tenby.