Tenby traders have been dealt a blow in their bid to receive a night-time refuse collection in the town. Pembrokeshire County Council's head of environmental services, Mr. Barrie Davies, wrote to Tenby Town Council this week informing them that the authority was not in a position to consider such a collection at the moment.
Calls had been made in recent weeks by town councillors and traders for a night-time collection to be introduced during the summer season in light of the authority's decision to cut back collections in Tenby.
At Tuesday night's meeting of the town council, members discussed a report of a further meeting held last Thursday when Mr. Davies discussed trade refuse arrangements with concerned traders and councillors.
Chairing the meeting, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown explained to the county council's head of environmental services, that the timing of the introduction of the new collection arrangements at the beginning of May had been very unfortunate and had come at the wrong time to allow the traders to adjust to the changes before the main season began.
She said that traders were too busy without the additional worries of dealing with their waste at this time of year and asked if the authority could revert back to twice-weekly collections for the rest of the season, before the whole situation could be reconsidered in more depth in October.
Mr. Davies said that he had discussed this option with his director, but the authority had to implement the agreements as written and unfortunately there was no flexibility in this. He stated that an audit review had revealed that the trade waste service was being subsidised by £250,000 a year, which was not permitted.
Tenby county councillor Mike Evans said at the meeting that he had long felt that traders in urban areas of the county were subsidising trade waste customers in rural areas. He felt that there should be a sliding scale of charges.
Clr. Evans said that he would continue to lobby Mr. Davies's director about the possibility of a sliding scale of charges in the future.
He also felt that, in the interim, the county council could consider the introduction of a special rate for an additional 'uplift' if there was a number of businesses in the same street all requiring it.
Speaking about the meeting with Mr. Davies, Clr. Mrs. Brown told her council colleagues on Tuesday that she was "really disappointed" with the way discussions unfolded.
"The county council were totally immovable on this; there was absolutely no give on the matter during the meeting. All we can hope is that Clr. Evans can continue to lobby the county council cabinet on the matter.
"Come the end of September, traders probably won't even need the extra collection, but it is a necessity right now during the summer season," said Clr. Mrs. Brown.
Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, wondered if the problems opened things up for a private collection to come in, with her colleague, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas, agreeing that it could be a "secret method" by the authority to prompt businesses and traders to go private.
Councillors agreed that they would ask Clr. Evans to keep them updated on the matter.