Councillors in Tenby have long touted ‘lighting up’ the Walled Town - but wouldn’t have had this quite in mind when it was spotted that some not so bright spark had fixed an ashtray into the historic town walls!

Hopefully, Pembrokeshire County Council will be able to patch up any damaged caused to the walls situated alongside South Parade, after this monumental blunder was spotted and reported to Tenby’s county councillor for the South Ward, Cllr Sam Skyrme-Blackhall.

“I am not often lost for words but I was when someone pointed out to me that apparently someone has decided it was a bright idea to fix an ashtray to the Town Walls!” said Cllr Skyrme-Blackhall.

“I despair at the lack of respect for our Town Walls. I have already reported this to the relevant authorities. I just hope that there has not been too much damage,” she added.

Plans to improve the condition of the town walls back in 2021, were put on the back burner it was revealed last year, due to a lack of funding from Pembrokeshire County Council.

A spruce-up of the historical town walls was called for recently, after they were labelled ‘something of a mess’ by Tenby’s county councillor for the North Ward Cllr Michael Williams, who raised his concerns with the Local Authority, asking them to treat a section of the walls, as parts of them have become increasingly unkempt.

Tenby town walls
Tenby's historical town walls (Observer pic)

“Looking at the South Parade walls, I’m concerned at the growth of weeds currently on show, possibly causing damage to the stonework,” stated Cllr Williams.

In response, the County Council’s head of infrastructure Darren Thomas said that he would see to it that work would be undertaken by PCC’s internal arborists, working in the Environment team, with the plan to treat them twice this year, once before the summer and then again at the end of the season in September.