Councillors in Tenby have vowed to work with Pembrokeshire County Council in a bid to retain the town’s Tourist Information Centre which has been earmarked for potential closure by the authority, with the town’s Deputy Mayor stating that such a decision would be ‘detrimental’ to the resort.

Following concerns raised by members of Tenby town council at their previous meeting regarding rumours that the facility located on Upper Park Road had been identified by PCC’s cabinet as one of a number of services under their ‘transformation agenda’ that would be reviewed for radical rethinking on delivery or cessation, the town clerk Andrew Davies and Clr. Mike Evans, attended a meeting with PCC heads of service Mike Cavanagh and Paul Ashley-Jones last week to discuss the matter.

They explained that the Tenby TIC was one of the services being reviewed, but Clr. Evans wondered if the facility could be expanded to provide more customer services along the lines of those delivered in other Tier Two towns, but it became clear that the future of these Customer Services Centres is also under review.

PCC will shortly be holding budget seminars where by county councillors will be able to put forward arguments as to why, in the major tourism centre of the county,

the provision of a TIC is vital.

“Clr. Evans has already requested that the investigation into the operation of the TIC in Tenby also takes account of the other services provided by the facility (e.g. revenue gained by selling of PCC parking passports etc.), and the review has also been asked to take account of the fact that the current TIC building was constructed as part of the Welsh Government grant aided development of the multi-storey area into a transport hub (and any potential ‘claw-back’ of the portion of grant aid spend on the building),” explained Mr. Davies in a report that came before town councillors at their meeting on Tuesday night.

“However Clr. Evans and I also feel that, from the conversations had, that we must consider a scenario whereby the TIC will be closed.

Mr. Davies pointed out in his report that in Saundersfoot and Narberth, TIC provision has already been moved to the libraries (in Narberth this provision is provided by volunteers), whilst in Pembroke, when their TIC closed, the service was also switched to the library with Pembroke Town Council agreeing to contribute towards the provision at a cost of £20,000 per annum (following public consultation which supported the proposal).

“We were pleased to learn from Mr. Cavanagh that the library provision in Tenby has been safeguarded from this review, but it was felt that a similar

arrangement, whereby TIC provision was moved to here, would not work as the library was too remote from the town centre,” he continued.

“Several suggestions were made by of?cers to retain the provision in Tenby including the town council funding the building costs of its present location with the service provided by volunteers; a partnership arrangement between the town council and holiday letting agents or PCC providing some form of reduced service within Tenby Market.

“Naturally, while these suggestions will enable PCC to make savings on their budgets, there would be implications for the council tax payers of Tenby in that ?nancial

provision would have to be made in the precept. (Under Section 144 (2) of the LGA 1972 town councils have the power to contribute to certain organisations encouraging tourism)

“As the town council will soon be considering its budget for next year, it is suggested that we enter into discussions with PCC as a matter of urgency to look at ways in

which we may be able to work with the Authority to look at alternatives to the closure of the TIC,” he added.

Speaking on the matter, county councillor Michael Williams, who represents the Tenby North ward on the county council, told councillors that the matter would be discussed further at a finance seminar meeting on November 26 at County Hall in Haverfordwest.

“Things are pretty dire, we are in a dark place as a council,” remarked Clr. Williams. “Having the lowest Band D tax in Wales has now come home to roost and we are languishing at the bottom behind Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. We do little now as a council and what we do, we don’t do well.

“Two years ago I warned that things would get worse, and my observations were dismissed as ‘doom and gloom’ but here we are, and you ain’t seen nothing yet!

“To be fair the recent administration at PCC inherited this mess, and the Cabinet Member for Finance, Clr. Bob Kilmister, is doing his best to negotiate us through it, but things are not looking good. We are sitting on a time bomb and things are pretty black. I am most frightened for the effect that this will have on the most vulnerable people in society - the elderly who have no resources, and our children, whose education we provide,” added Clr. Williams.

Clr. Evans said that he didn’t believe that it was ‘all doom and gloom’ but that the problem was the pressure of providing services, and that the cost of care was dramatically rising, day after day.

He stated that the Tourist Information Centre should stay open as PCC needed to be servicing the public.

“Do PCC take tourism seriously? One weekend alone they sold £750 worth of parking passes from the TIC,” he said.

“They’re making a tremendous profit from the multi-storey building behind. They can’t contribute to tourism in Pembrokeshire yet they can run an airport! The town council needs to speak with PCC to see how we can help to keep the TIC and commit to save it,” continued Clr. Evans.

“It would be detrimental to lose something like this - we need to do something,” remarked the Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown.

Councillors agreed that TTC should enter into discussions with PCC as a matter or urgency to look at ways to work together to avoid the closure of the Tourist Information Centre in Tenby.