At their last committee meeting Tenby Walled Town Residents' Association raised a number of issues that continue to be of concern to those who live within the walls.
PEDESTRIANISATION
Pedestrianisation and the need to secure a workable solution was still foremost in the minds of the committee. It was hoped that following analysis of the traffic and pedestrianisation surveys, a way forward could be agreed with the county council for next year. The committee were concerned that although the council had given assurances that there would be liaison and agreement with representative organisations on the wording of questions in this year's Resident's Survey Form nothing had been forthcoming. The committee confirmed its agreement with the policy passed at their last AGM to work towards a form of pedestrianisation that allows all residents unfettered vehicular access to their properties to enable them to load and unload, while at the same time acknowledging the advantages of keeping Tudor Square and High Street traffic free. The initial feedback received indicated that for those residents with off-street parking the concession of allowing one return journey a day was a considerable improvement on the previous experiments, but those residents who didn't qualify still had problems. There had also been problems reported that had resulted from the council's refusal to allow couriers into the walled town to deliver during pedestrianisation times and the lack of monitoring of vehicles at entering and leaving through Belmont Arch. It was agreed to hold an open meeting to enable all businesses and residents in Tenby to air their views on this years pedestrianisation experiment and their hopes for the future. It was agreed to invite Ian Westley, director of transportation and environment, to speak at the meeting.
ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
The committee were also told that the association had been invited to, and attended a multi-agency meeting called by the county council to discuss licensing and anti-social behaviour. There was general agreement at this meeting that a prime cause of anti-social behaviour in the early hours of the morning was due to premises being open at these times. The nuisance caused by people wandering the streets at these times was seen as causing the greatest problems for both the police and residents. With the imminent introduction of the new licensing laws and the new powers that will be available, it was felt that agreement should be reached on a unified closing time that would apply to all licensed and take away premises. Drunkenness in public places at any time was seen as unacceptable, but the police acknowledged that instances during the afternoon when families are about should be treated with zero tolerance.
ENHANCEMENT SCHEME
It was agreed that a letter be written to PCC asking what the current programme was for further works to enhance Tudor Square and High Street. In previous meetings the association had attended, it had been stated that the second stage would commence in autumn 2004. The committee asked that the question be asked if this was still the case and if there were any changes to the previously published plans. It was also requested that the question of when the problems with the work carried out last spring would be remedied and the role of the National Park in approving this work.
LITTER PROBLEM
Concern was raised by the continuing failure to solve the litter problems caused by gulls. The change to an earlier pick up time for domestic rubbish was welcomed but the other recent initiative of a circular letter drop asking residents to put cloth or carpet coverings over the black bags were considered ineffectual. The root of the problem was considered to be the reliance on black bags being left exposed on the street for the rubbish collection in the walled town. The critical elements of the problem were seen as the gulls had got into the habit of opening black bags and the occupants of holiday flats generally did not leave their rubbish out for the Friday morning collection. It was noted that domestic rubbish was often put in litter bins or left out at other times leaving it vulnerable to scavenging gulls. A letter had previously been sent to the town council suggesting that notices be put on litter bins requesting that domestic rubbish not be put in litter bins and stating the time of the domestic rubbish collection was in that area had been ignored. Due to the special problems of residents of flats within the walled town it had been requested that more than one collection a week be undertaken and this also had been ignored. It was noted that some other seaside towns had moved away from a reliance of leaving black bags on the streets to collect domestic rubbish. Notably Brighton, which also has a resident gull population, now used rigid collapsible boxes with lids to contain the black bags and these had been popular with their residents. The recent notices that had been put up by the town council asking people to stop feeding the gulls were welcomed and it was agreed to write to the Tenby Observer on this point asking that more be erected.