Tenby Town Council are planning to celebrate Her Majesty, The Queen's Golden Jubilee with three children's parties in the De Valence Pavilion.

A tea dance would also be arranged for the town's senior citizens.

Speaking at Tuesday night's meeting of the council, the Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown, revealed that, as they had been so busy planning the town's 600th Charter anniversary, nothing had been set-up to mark the Jubilee.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" she asked.

Clr. Mickey Folland revealed that he had been contacted by Mr. Dennis Bancroft, who had put forward several suggestions along this vein.

"The first would be to clean-up the statue of Prince Albert on Castle Hill," explained Clr. Folland. "Next would be a presentation album of Tenby for The Queen.

"Another suggestion was the restoration of the keep through grant aid and then invite Her Majesty to come and open it."

Clr. Mrs. Brown informed Clr. Folland that the cleaning of the Prince Albert statue was already in hand as part of the Charter celebrations.

"The idea of the keep is worth looking at," she added. "Perhaps the Civic Society would like to have a look at it in the first instance.

"On the subject of a royal visit, we have written to Pembrokeshire County Council's head of marketing, Mr. David Thomas, four times to see if there would be a chance of a royal visit during our Charter year. To date we have had no response.

"We also wrote to the Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed. He sent us a nice letter back saying he was unable to help

"Two-and-a-half years ago we also wrote to Mr. Thomas asking him to look into a royal visit when Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter suggested renaming Crackwell Street gardens in memory of Princess Diana.

"He was enthusiastic at the time, but we never heard back.

"It just seems unfair that Haverfordwest, Pembroke et al get royal visits, however minor the royal, and Tenby gets none."

Clr. Folland said that he would take up the matter with Mr. Thomas on his next visit to County Hall.

Clr. Mrs. Maureen Ward also had a suggestion to mark the Jubilee.

"We are very fond of asking the townspeople for things, this is our chance to give something back," she commented.

"I suggest a tea dance for the senior citizens in the De Valence.

"It appears that most estates will have trouble organising street parties this Jubilee because of things like road closure orders and public entertainment licences, so I suggest that we hold three parties in the De Valence during half-term week in June.

"One will be a more conventional party for the sevens and unders and then two discos for the eights to 12s and the 13s to 16s.

"The children could each bring a plate of food and we'll supply the entertainment."

Members welcomed the suggestion and gave it their full backing.

Referring back to an earlier debate on play areas, Clr. Mrs. Kerri Durham suggested that, as it was Jubilee year, the town council should officially adopt the Jubilee play area.

Clr. Andrew Rees commented that the town council had not set aside any money in the precept this year for such an undertaking, but felt the suggestion was worth looking into.