Plans to close off the walled town of Tenby to traffic for six weeks this summer were unanimously rejected at a public meeting in the town this week.

Proposals from Pembrokeshire County Council last week that vehicles be banned from entering the town from 12 noon to 4 pm from Monday, July 22 through to Saturday, August 31, on an experimental basis, sparked concern from the town council and the local business community - particularly those in Tudor Square.

As a result, the traders revived the Tenby Commercial Ratepayers Association and arranged a public meeting in the De Valence Pavilion on Monday night.

"It was a very good and well attended meeting," said chairman of the Tenby Commercial Ratepayers Association, Mr. Howard Lewis, of Morris Bros.

"In addition to ourselves, there were representatives of the Chamber of Trade and Tourism and Tenby 2020 as well as hoteliers, café owners, shop-keepers and members of the general public.

"There was a thorough discussion of all the options and the consensus was that any form of pedestrianisation required a great deal of thought and investigation as to how we could cope with Tenby's individual needs via a comprehensive traffic management scheme rather than a piecemeal approach as this proposal would be."

Mr. Lewis explained that the meeting had unanimously backed a proposal to write to Pembrokeshire County Council calling for the idea to be shelved in favour of a properly managed scheme.

"The whole meeting felt that the proposed order was unworkable and would be to the detriment of Tenby as a whole," Mr. Lewis said.

"No doubt it will require time and investment to produce a plan, but it is as important to have a good, well thought out scheme as it is to have everyone on board to ensure that it will be workable, because no scheme will be effective without the co-operation of the majority of those people who could be affected.

"We accept that something has to be done, but, with the proposed business park at New Hedges, we do not want Tenby to become a mothballed town.

"People come to Tenby because it is different from other places. They do not want to come to a town that is the same as every other town in the country.

"Tenby is unique and it's infrastructure is very fragile.

"We hope that decisions made elsewhere will take full account of that uniqueness, the town's nature and position."