Councillors in Tenby have called for a major spruce up of the Castle Hill area, criticising the county council for ‘sucking’ money out of the town and not doing their jobs.

Speaking at last week’s meeting of the town council, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas told her colleagues that major maintenance work needed carrying out on the Castle Hill area of the resort.

“There are big horrible weed problems that somebody from Pembrokeshire County Council should address!” she said.

“Walking to the old lifeboat station, the weeds are coming out of the ancient wall there, and on the pathway overlooking the new lifeboat station.

“There is a massive weed between two memorial benches, that needs sorting out of respect for those people if anything.”

Clr. Mrs. Thomas pointed out that even the Welsh National Memorial to Prince Albert was surrounded by weeds.

“There are even weeds coming out of the plaque underneath him! He’s been standing there for some time and probably not had a clean or wash for over 100 years!

“Maybe the Welsh Government would like to offer some funding towards this out of respect for the people of Wales who paid for the monument!” she told her fellow council colleagues.

Town clerk, Andrew Davies, pointed out that Albert once had a face wash after vandals had daubed him in yellow paint, but that was a few years back.

“A plaque recognising the freehold of Castle Hill is unreadable, and needs cleaning up and our lovely canons that everyone sits on need their plinths painting too,” continued Clr. Mrs. Thomas.

Clr. Trevor Hallett agreed that something needed to be done sooner rather than later regarding the canons as their conditions were getting a bit dangerous, whilst Clr. Will Rossiter pointed out that he was also concerned about the state of part of a wall building on Castle Hill, which he felt Cadw or Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority needed to take a look at, and also made reference to the poor state of some of the pathways in the area.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, who is also chairman of Tenby in Bloom, agreed that something drastically needed doing at the area.

“We do have a beautification team that carry out weeding around the town, but apart from our own committee members and a few volunteers, we are struggling to get local people involved, despite our attempts in trying to get more man power. We need more people on board,” she stated.

“If we’re in for another bumper season, then the standard that has been set has to be maintained.

“The first impression of a town is vital, so we need a well kept and weed free Tenby,” added Clr. Mrs. Lane.

Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown said she totally supported the Mayor and his Deputy’s ethic on volunteering, but that the town shouldn’t have to rely on the help of locals to keep it clean and tidy.

“Most of these problems are Pembrokeshire County Council’s responsibility,” she remarked.

“Everybody pays their rates, and more should be done for Pembrokeshire’s premium town for tourism.

“Pembrokeshire County Council come in and sweep the roads and then they’re gone again. They should definitely be carrying out more gardening and maintenance work around the town.

“Let’s write to the county council’s chief executive Ian Westley as he seems very partial to Tenby. We need to put a rocket up somebody’s backside to get these kind of jobs done and get moving on them,” added Clr. Mrs. Brown.

Clr. Dr. Peter Easy suggested that the town council spend some of their financial reserves on areas such as Castle Hill, as they had some £142,000 at their disposal.

“When we’re sitting on top of a large amount of money, we can’t then say where is the money?” he remarked, with Clr. Mrs. Brown pointing out though that the more that the town council spent themselves, the less Pembrokeshire County Council would end up doing for the town.

“The county council do less and less for us as each year goes on, pleading poverty. These jobs are not our jobs they are the county council’s,” continued Clr. Mrs. Brown.

Clr. Paul Rapi suggested that a strong letter made its way to County Hall as the situation in Tenby was getting ‘ridiculous’.

He said: “The dangerous area on the cliff opposite W. H. Smith has been ignored for some years by the county council and will soon become a life or death situation, and Castle Hill seems to be going the same way.

“The county council can’t keep sucking money out of this town. They need to send someone down to have a look at these issues or someone will be hurt due to their incompetence and neglect.”

“Pembrokeshire County Council are badly managing their money. I do object strongly to putting our funds into jobs that they should be doing, meaning the town’s people through their rates will be paying twice. It is robbing the people of Tenby,” added Clr. Rapi.

The Mayor, Clr. Laurence Blackhall, said that as the county council had made a decision on bringing in a 50 per cent surcharge on second home owners next year, he hoped that this substantial extra revenue coming from Tenby would actually be spent in the town.

FOOTNOTE: Tenby Town Council are to meet with an officer from Pembrokeshire County Council to discuss the matter on Tuesday.