Pembrokeshire County Council’s transportation department admit that they appear to be ‘stuck in the mud’ about offering a solution to problems concerning vehicle access to Tenby’s Knowling Mead.

A spokesperson for the authority confirmed this week that the transportation department had looked at the possibility of improvement works being carried out at the Knowling Mead roundabout, in response to concerns from local residents who have claimed that the matter is becoming a danger, but PCC admitted that funding restrictions were hindering any work action.

One local resident unhappy with the situation, wrote to the Observer this week, stating that they hoped that it wouldn’t take a ‘tragedy’ for the matter to be addressed, as there were grave concerns amongst people living at the estate that emergency service vehicles would have trouble accessing the area.

“On Monday, the refuse collection lorry mounted the roundabout and has created big tracks and excessive mud which gets taken up the road,” they wrote.

“The only way an ambulance or any other van can come around the roundabout is to mount it. Vehicles are getting stuck and last Sunday the AA were called to pull a gas van out of the mud!

“Will it take a tragedy for the roundabout to be taken away and a small circle installed instead; this way cars could park diagonally and this would create much-needed parking spaces, and also a clear road for ambulances, fire engines etc,” they continued.

A spokesperson for PCC said that the authority considers requests for parking improvements in relation to council housing stock from its housing estate budget.

“This requires that at least 80 per cent of the properties are council housing stock (on the basis that housing funds should benefit council tenants and not privately owned dwellings),” they explained.

“Knowling Mead does not meet the ownership threshold of 80 per cent as ownership is approximately 50 per cent.

“Other than the private owners carrying out some sort of parking improvements on their own land (subject to viability, consents, and so forth), the only other possibility for work at Knowling Mead is a more general ‘highway’ improvement.

“However, traffic and highway budgets have been severely reduced in recent years, and unfortunately there is no funding available for such an initiative,” added the spokesperson.