Traders in Tenby who have seen their business disrupted by ongoing roadworks in the resort, have once again slammed Pembrokeshire County Council for a lack of management in co-ordinating the works, stating that the ‘chaos caused’ has been ‘detrimental’ to the town.

The group of businesspeople who operate their premises along St. George’s Street recently told the Observer how they were up in arms over the upheaval caused by roadworks and road closures in the vicinity to enable electricity replacement and carriageway reconstruction work.

The scheme which is part of the county council’s planned maintenance programme, was expected to have been completed by the middle of February, before the Welsh schools half-term, but delays have occurred and the work is still ongoing.

Speaking at a meeting of Tenby Town Council on Tuesday night, Yvonne Uka, of café The Lounge 2, along with other traders who had been affected, explained how they had experienced one of their worst ever half-term holidays, due to the roadworks, barriers and heavy machinery along the area.

“There has been a lack of communication and no consideration from Pembrokeshire County Council towards businesses in this area on the matter,” she told town councillors.

“An estimated four weeks of works has turned into 18 weeks, and our half-term was completely wiped out!

“We were told this work was being done at the quietest time of the year, but the quietest time for who? We have been physically unable to get our customers through our doors!” she continued.

Mrs. Uka explained that the county council initially forgot to put signs up saying that businesses were open as usual, with deliveries and refuse collection affected, due to a lack of access for vehicles, and work lorries and equipment blocking the road.

To add to that, businesses had had to deal with the electricity being cut-off completely on two separate occasions.

She said that other recent road closures on Bridge Street and Crackwell Street for Welsh Water works at the same time had practically left Tenby gridlocked at one stage, with vehicles travelling through the town having ‘nowhere to go’ due to the bottleneck that the works disruption had caused.

“It has affected the whole of Tenby and been detrimental to the whole town,” she remarked.

“After Western Power laid down the underground electricity cables, PCC came along to resurface the road, but it has taken them from the third week in January to get to where they are now, for works that should have been completed within four weeks!

“If this had been a private contractor, then there is no way that this would have been allowed to go on. There has been a complete lack of management and communication from PCC, and it is important that they get more manpower in to finish these works.

“PCC have tarmacked the road now in the interim period to open up for the Easter holidays, so I don’t know what the cost implications are for that, but this will now become a problem for other traders in the area when the work continues along Upper Frog Street after Easter, so the matter needs to be highlighted again,” she added.

Keith May, of The Three Mariners, said that some of his punters had been advised by workmen to ‘jump across’ a section where they were laying down concrete if they wanted to access the pub, explaining how the works had even resulted in him closing the premises on some days.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall told the traders present that their comments and concerns would once again be passed on to PCC, with a request that businesses in the town are taken into consideration when future work schemes are planned for Tenby.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown called the situation ‘shocking’, with her colleague Clr. Trevor Hallett stating that it was important for PCC to realise when scheduling such works, that Tenby was no longer a ‘seasonal town’.

“These works are essential as the condition of the carriageway along this street is awful, but a balance must be struck with the expectations and needs of the businesses in the area,” communicated Clr. Mike Evans in correspondence sent to PCC’s head of highways and construction, Darren Thomas, who in return explained that the work was due to commence again after the Easter holiday period on Monday, April 16, and break again on April 27 for the Bank Holiday.

“As highway authority, we have a duty to the road user to maintain our roads,” wrote Mr. Thomas.

“Laying a cobbled/paviour surface is a labour intensive, and time consuming process and not something we undertake on a regular basis.

“The programme of highway work had been based on commencing on January 15, but we were not able to access the site until January 29, pending Western Power Distribution completing their works.

“In addition, the condition of the sub-base was poorer than anticipated which has meant that we have had to carry out additional reshaping and strengthening.

“We have seen the observation in the Tenby Observer from some local traders - it should, however, be noted that we are also receiving compliments about the quality of the work.

“We are sorry for the delay, but hope the feedback gives some explanation,” added Mr. Thomas.