Plans to develop a ‘master plan’ for Tenby, with a holistic vision focusing on the town centre’s commercial function, and cultural importance, has been put to local councillors.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet recently endorsed a ‘master plan’ to revitalise Haverfordwest by focusing on four flagship projects, which will identify cultural and leisure uses to get people back into the town centre, and outline a range of measures to make the town an attractive place to visit.

At a meeting of Tenby Town Council, correspondence from the county council’s regeneration manager, Sinead Henehan, outlined a strategy by the authority to develop ‘master plans’ for main towns in the county.

“The ‘Haverfordwest Master Plan’ recently completed gives a strategic focus for the re-development of the town. This we believe is an opportunity that the other main towns would benefit from,” she explained.

Draft proposals put in front of Tenby councillors stated that the town centre required a ‘holistic vision’ looking at its retail and commercial function; transport and parking systems; cultural importance; landscape setting and historic built heritage; and its role as a workplace.

Part of the plan’s purpose would be to enhance the town centre environment, and identify deliverable opportunities for new and well integrated town centre development projects.

It will also advise on an appropriate approach to transport and car parking management which supports the town centre economy whilst minimising the impact of traffic on the area.

Continued Ms. Henehan: “The county council would like to seek consultants to prepare, in consultation with local stakeholders, a master plan to inform decisions about the infrastructure, development and management of the town centre, and to feed into the development of a portfolio of town master plans across the county to develop a cohesive long-term strategy for Pembrokeshire.

“The council also requires a prioritised list of infrastructure and development projects and a deliverable partnership action plan to implement these.

“As yet, we have not identified the cost implications of such an exercise in Tenby, but we would be interested to know whether Tenby Town Council would be prepared to financially contribute towards the development of the Tenby Master Plan.” 

It is envisaged that a draft of the master plan would be produced by May 2017, to be put out to wider consultation during the summer, before a final master and action plan goes before the county council’s cabinet later next year.

Commenting on the correspondence, Clr. Mike Evans said that Tenby was lucky enough to be identified by the county council as one of the six towns that would be open to the project, and if the funding was there, then it would be an advantage to have the authority’s ‘regeneration team’ at the town’s disposal.

Clr. Dr Peter Easy agreed. “This could be the most important draft document we see, and the best investment we make for several years.

“The overall vision and future strategy should determine where we are and where we go,” he said.

Clr. Will Rossiter told his colleagues that he wasn’t convinced by the proposals drafted out, describing them as ‘gobbledygook’ and accusing the county council of churning out the ‘same words’ as they always do.

The Mayor, Clr. Laurence Blackhall, said that in principal, the town council supported the idea of a ‘master plan’ for Tenby’s town centre and suggested that councillors start ‘jotting’ down ideas they have that could be brought forward.

“This can focus on what our ambitions are for Tenby. It’s a really important step forward, and one that we need to follow with purpose,” he remarked.

Clr. Paul Rapi commented that it would be good to set up a meeting on the proposal ASAP, to get things moving, while the town clerk said that he’d look at the ‘Haverfordwest master plan’ to get some idea of the process, and gain an idea of what other town’s in the county were contributing financially.

Discussing the draft brief with Tenby councillors, the county council’s head of regeneration, Martin White described the ‘master plan’ proposals as a way of ‘fresh thinking’.