Sir,

The article in the Tenby Observer, on July 24, is a bit of scaremongering by PCC, just highlighting the wording 100 per cent of available parking. Mr. Blake is making out that all streets in Tenby are going to be 100 per cent permit parking and there will be nowhere to park for anyone, but the permit holders which is totally wrong.

I have asked PCC to change their wording of their traffic orders from 50 per cent to 100 per cent, as if it is needed, the council can then supply more on-street parking for that street and its residents etc.

Personally, I asked PCC for an extra four on-street parking spaces for permit parking in Culver Park to the 13 we have at present because as of 2014/15, 21 full residents permits were issued, plus a number of visitors and dispensations permits which brings it well above the 13 located spaces we have at the moment, with the remainder of the street marked out as a bay, and from April to September from 6 pm - 8 am permit parking only so leaving that section of the street from 8 am - 6 pm and winter months for people working in town etc to park in.

What the residents in the bay areas have to remember is when you have work carried out on your property, the builders/plumbers etc have to buy a dispensation permit where the price of that permit is going to be passed onto you, where if the section of your road as I said above, from 8 am - 6 pm is for general parking, the builder/plumbers and people working in the town will have somewhere to park.

This situation of the lack of parking spaces is going on in most, if not all the streets around Tenby, and with this trial of so-called ‘zoning,’ it is not going to work as the streets for the trial are Culver Park, Picton Road, Southcliffe Street/Gardens, Victoria Street, Picton Terrace, Sutton Street and The Esplanade. If you are local, you will know you that most of these streets have parking on both sides of the street. If this trial is then rolled out to the rest of streets of Tenby, the parking is going to be worse as most streets outside the trial area have parking on one side of the street only.

Mr. Blake and Mr. Thomas need to look at each street individually as one street may only need 30 per cent of the street for permits holders and one or two may need the 100 per cent. As some people have noticed, some bay areas in certain streets in Tenby lay unused during the day, where if PCC took my advice onboard, that area could be used from 8 am - 6 pm by the public.

The people applying this trial don’t understand the situation of the parking in Tenby as do any of them live here? When they come into Tenby, they probably use their car- park passes so have a space to park where the resident has to pay £40 to try and park in their street.

I’ve lived in Tenby all my 50 years, 26 of them in the street I live now, and I have seen the parking get worse and worse. I don’t want to go out of an evening and come home in the car finding nowhere to park. We have no choice, but to park in the streets. I’ve kept quite like everyone else and just talked/moaned about it, but we are letting PCC walk all over us and we need our local councillors to act on it for us.

If it isn’t done correctly in the first place, there will be no second bite at it. Two or three years ago, everyone had a survey to fill in regarding on-street parking and permits in Tenby. Through the Freedom of Information Act, I asked PCC the results of this survey and it made very interested reading, especially what was voted for ie more on-street parking spaces for residents and no to visitors’ on-street parking permit were all won, but nothing has been done about it. Can you all remember when the visitors on-street permit was £7? Well the mass majority of Tenby residents, including myself, who were asked to vote, voted to keep it at £7, but it is now £20. The question was also asked regarding the price of on-street visitor permits if the vote to scrap it was lost. PCC has now introduced a visitors passport permit giving them access to council run car parks throughout Pembrokeshire for duration of their stay here for the same price as on-street permits, £20.

The additional space in your streets can be used, but PCC are refusing to change their traffic orders on my say so, so I’m now needing your help to hopefully make them change it.

M. Williams,

Tenby.