Sir,

Re: 'Councillors and MP demand details on new school plans' and 'Tenby left in the dark over school and library plans'.

I read with interest the above articles and was amazed at the responses from Pembrokeshire County Council. They state that the new schools will result in no loss of green space and yet one of Greenhill School rugby pitches will be lost in order to develop the new English primary school. In fact, the proposed boundary of the new school will be so close to the goal posts of the remaining pitch that it will rule out all kicking practice since the balls will land on the proposed building or hard plays areas.

This will also impact on the junior Tenby rugby teams who play here at weekends when the Heywood Lane pitch is otherwise occupied. In fact, I wonder whether there will be access?

Additionally, any other groups, bodies or organisations, for example air ambulance and other service helicopters, will find that landing here will be difficult or at least transfer to or from ambulances etc. will be tricky.

A fence is to be erected between the school and the access to the field so that local children currently using the field after school and during the holidays will also find access more difficult.

With regard to the library being situated here - it is often stated by PCC that this decision has come as a direct result of the consultation with the public about the future of the library. Bearing in mind the consultation was whether the library should be moved to the Tenby Leisure Centre, respondents were asked to suggest alternative locations. Some 267 people who managed to find out that this consultation was actually taking place responded to the survey; this would represent approximately 2.5 per cent of the population that currently uses Tenby library from the town and surrounding area.

We are asked to believe that those who were presumably armed with crystal balls were able to suggest the new school that virtually no one new about? How many people? Or are we talking about a survey conducted of school children which was not the public survey and with less or different options?

Questions need to be asked about the other services that will be lost and or moved once the library goes from its current location and the site sold off. Where will the Avenue Centre go? Local belief is that the community is to be broken up and dispersed around the area? What about the youth groups, where are they to be located - school? Like an after-school club?

The town council and our county councillors must be called upon to help us. Rather than piecemeal changes, closure and developments, this major change in Tenby's schools and services needs to be viewed and dealt with holistically, rather than lots of separate developments and issues. It makes it so much easier for PCC to implement the change without the impact and change being viewed as part of the whole.

I hope the Civic Society will be vigilant over this massive development. Since the demise of Tenby 2020, it is the only means by which local people can present their concerns about planning matters as part of an organised group that represents the community, otherwise we are all individuals who are very much on our own fighting the likes of PCC who give us misleading information about what always seems to amount to a fait accompli and where consultation is only a means of voicing concerns about decisions already made.

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