Consultations on regulating horse drawn carriage rides in Pembrokeshire have been backed by members of Tenby Town Council.

Correspondence from Pembrokeshire County Council came before Tenby councillors at their meeting on Tuesday night, with information on the consultation which ends on September 22.

At present, the county council has no powers to restrict the number of horse drawn carriages operating within the county, and currently there is only one horse drawn carriage operating as a business and that is within Tenby.

“A licensing regime for horse drawn omnibuses, with byelaws, would give the council the power to regulate the safety of all such operations and prevent any possible nuisance,” said a spokesperson for PCC.

On discussing the matter, councillors said that they would agree with the consultation option to bring in a licensing regime for horse drawn omnibuses with byelaws.

“As a town council we have a considerable amount of complaints to our offices about the current horse and carriage ride operating in Tenby,” said Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown.

“Well done to Pembrokeshire County Council for bringing this up, with their points to do something about this. I’d fully support a byelaw.

“We as a town council stick up for the amount of people complaining, but are unable to do anything about it, but hopefully PCC can.

“You can’t have people with a horse and carriage shouting ‘get out the way’ going through the town. It let’s us down, let’s the town down and all the other traders,” added Clr. Mrs. Brown.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall felt it was important that such rides were properly regulated, and that it was equally important that if a byelaw was brought in, that it covered street trading in general too.

“It would be a huge waste of time if PCC do not include illegal street trading in any byelaw they are considering,” he commented.