A Tenby county councillor has stated that it’s not all ‘doom and gloom’ for the county, despite the threat of further budget cuts to services in the pipeline.

Speaking at Tuesday night’s meeting of Tenby Town Council on Tuesday night, Clr. Mike Evans, who represents the Tenby South ward on Pembrokeshire County Council, told his fellow town councillors that he had attended a cabinet meeting at County Hall in Haverfordwest at the start of the week, in which a number of positive factors were discussed, but reaffirmed the need for funding for the resort to be expended wisely and to suit the requirements of the town’s residents.

“Despite the doom and gloom of what you heard a couple of weeks ago, I come to you with a more positive report,” he told members.

“Yes, things must change, but how we do things today must change too.

“We will need community engagement going forward.

“It’s not just PCC that needs to look at the way things are done, Tenby Town Council needs to look very carefully at how things are done too,” he said.

Clr. Evans said that Tenby and Saundersfoot combined would fall into PCC’s ‘tier two hub’ and that every effort would be made to maintain services that would be potentially targeted by cuts in these areas.

He said that Tenby would be well placed in the future to take advantage of projects, including housing and integrated parking schemes.

Clr. Evans said that, although leisure services in the county may be under review, there would potentially be investment in a new swimming pool for Tenby, as well as all-weather 3G sports pitches for communities across Pembrokeshire.

Town councillors were told by Clr. Evans that a ‘new traffic order’ was also discussed which would feature new annual options for the people of Pembrokeshire.

This would include a ‘Penfro’ permit where for £200 per annum, people could utilise long stay spaces in any of the car parks across Pembrokeshire; as well as a ‘Puffin’ permit which at £125 annually, would be car park specific.

“Tenby’s multi-storey car park would be exempt from this scheme over the months of July and August, but I am asking for an amendment to the order so that the residents of Tenby North and South would be excluded from this exemption,” he said, also explaining that he’d asked for parking permit schemes at Tenby harbour to be looked at and reviewed to the benefit of residents and harbour users.

At the cabinet meeting on Monday, it was heard that the council tax could potentially go up by as much as 12.5 per cent in order to fill a projected £3.64 million shortfall.

Cabinet member for finance Clr. Bob Kilmister recommended to members that two budgets be produced before next month’s meeting of the full council - with one based on a five per cent council tax increase and the other on a 12.5 per cent increase, so that councillors could assess the different impacts.

Clr. Evans told his colleagues that he wouldn’t be voting for an increase on the council tax.

“Pembrokeshire County Council sits on large assets, and we need to make our assets work much harder for us,” he remarked.

“With regards to education in the county, the budget is ring-fenced from central government. PCC don’t determine what’s spent, they just pass it on,” continued Clr. Evans.

Referring to a suggestion from the Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown, as to whether the town council could contribute financially to reintroduce the park and ride bus service from Butts Field to the harbour area over the summer period, Clr. Evans said that they had to ask the question as to whether an example like this would be the best use of the town council’s funds.

“It’s up to this town council to spend money wisely and on what we believe meets the needs of the residents of Tenby,” he added.

Clr. Paul Rapi said that the budget meeting he recently attended at County Hall along with his fellow county councillor Michael Williams, who represents Tenby’s North ward, had definitely not been a ‘positive’ one, and whilst he agreed on some of the things Clr. Evans talked about, he felt that not all of it was an accurate reflection of what was being discussed at cabinet level.

Clr. Williams told members of the town council when he met with them at their previous meeting, that he and Clr. Rapi came out of a PCC members seminar feeling ‘profoundly depressed and extremely worried’, before informing councillors that there were ‘tougher cuts to come’, with a further £40.4m in reductions anticipated over the next four years.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall said that whatever points were discussed at the budget meetings at County Hall, it was clear that in the next few years, that the town council had to be smart about using its resources wisely and work closely with Pembrokeshire County Council to reduce any impact that financial cuts may have on local services.