Street traders and pedlars in Tenby have been slammed by councillors for showing ‘bad manners’.

Discussing a proposal at Tuesday night’s meeting of Tenby Town Council to introduce more seating benches into Tudor Square, near the old Natwest Bank building, members enquired if there had been any updates on the suggestion.

Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas pointed out that the seating in that area and close to the Dyster Memorial Fountain was constantly being moved around by the street traders who set up their stalls.

“The people moving the seats obviously aren’t polite enough to move them back, it’s very bad manners!” she remarked.

“I think we made a mistake when we didn’t ask for stone seating rather than wooden benches. We need to find a way of anchoring them down to stop the traders moving them,” continued Clr. Mrs. Thomas.

The town clerk, Andrew Davies, told members that he had contacted Pembrokeshire County Council’s head of street care on his views, and whether they would be allowed to bolt the seating down.

“They were put in as they were, as PCC felt it would be beneficial when they wanted to move the seating for events in the square,” he explained.

The Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, told her colleagues that the traders were being disrespectful and just doing what they wanted to do.

Meanwhile, after attending a recent meeting of Tenby Chamber of Trade and Tourism, Clr. Laurence Blackhall reported back to members that the organisation was positive about plans to try and introduce a byelaw to crackdown on street traders, pedlars and service providers.

“The Chamber of Trade are committed to working with the town council on this and we will continue dialogue on the byelaw possibilities,” he said.