Councillors in Tenby have said that a meeting with representatives of Pembrokeshire County Council to discuss areas of the town where parking problems have been prominent proved positive.

Recent issues have been highlighted across Tenby by town councillors with concerns over dangerous parking in and around Tudor Way and its junction with Heywood Lane, near Serpentine Road, during school drop-off and pick-up times, whilst areas such as Newell Hill and The Croft have also been highlighted as areas where inconsiderate parking has been prevalent.

A meeting held earlier this month with PCC’s senior traffic engineer, Ben Blake, and streetcare manager, Marc Owen in attendance to discuss concerns with town and county councillors from Tenby was described as ‘positive’ by Clr. Mrs. Tracey Evans at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, after she recently implored residents and visitors to ‘think before they park’ - giving examples of firefighters’ vehicles being blocked in on occasions when being called out to attend an emergency call.

“It was quite a successful, positive meeting I thought, and I felt quite buoyed by it. I think we should now pursue a meeting with the local emergency services on the same concerns,” Clr. Mrs. Evans told her colleagues.

At the meeting, Mr. Blake said that he was happy to proceed in arranging a meeting with the headteachers of the Tenby schools involved in parking concerns.

He said that the situation was chaotic around the schools at times but with such large catchment areas it would be difficult to promote active travel (e. g. walking to school). The introduction of restrictions would have an impact and he was prepared to look at a number of other possible ideas, which could protect access for residents and encourage sensible parking without the need for a great number of restrictions being introduced.

Mr. Blake said he would draft a scheme to bring before the town council which could then also be discussed with residents on the estates most affected.

Mr. Owen explained that as part of a PCC review into the possibility of introducing an ANPR parking enforcement van, the working party were also looking at how the enforcement officers were utilised.

He said that sadly he did not have the resources to deploy enforcement officers every day as Tenby was not the only area in the county where parking outside schools was a problem.

Discussing parking issues at Newell Hill, Mr. Owen said that some time ago it had been suggested that an area around the play area could be freed up to create more parking spaces. He was aware that the land was covenanted as to provide for a play area for children and he had asked PCC’s property section to investigate the covenant to see if there was any flexibility to accommodate parking and the play area.

Clr. Mrs. Evans said that the residents’ survey carried out had been clear that there was support for the loss of some of the green space of the play area for more parking, which could provide up to 10 spaces which would go a long way towards solving the problem.

Suggestion was also put forward for making the estate ‘Access Only’ for residents, but Mr. Owen commented that, based on experience elsewhere, this was difficult to enforce.

He added that if vehicles were causing an obstruction preventing people from getting out - as in the case highlighted recently - they should be reported to the police via 101.

Mr. Blake said said there were two issues relating to The Croft, with one a request to increase residents parking provision due to the increase in the number of permanent residents in the area. It was therefore proposed that the resident parking bays opposite Croft Court which had been removed some years ago due to lack of use be reinstated.

The second issue was parking towards the Norton junction. Although there were

double yellow lines, this did not prevent disabled badge holders from parking for up to three hours which lead to restriction of the carriageway. The proposal now was for the introduction of a ‘no stopping’ zone from the junction with the Norton to the entrance to the car park at the rear of the County Club.

He was aware that there were issues relating to parking on the landward side from this junction down to Croft Court. Extending the no stopping zone to this area had been considered but he felt that a balance had to be struck to allow loading and unloading by residents of these properties.

Mr. Owen said that he felt that the meeting had been very beneficial and productive and suggested that the town council consider formalising the arrangement in the form of a joint Traffic Management Group that could meet once a quarter to look at issues that arise in Tenby.