Wheels have been set in motion to introduce beach friendly wheelchairs to Tenby.

Town councillors recently highlighted the need for the town to become a more ‘wheelchair friendly’ resort, after a local resident wrote to them pointing out that it was a shame that the town’s beaches were difficult to access for disabled and elderly people, and would they town council consider such a scheme which had proved popular in places such as Saundersfoot.

“Tenby is such a beautiful place, but surely we should want everyone to be welcomed here,” wrote Rachel Batchelor in correspondence to the town council.

“It came to my attention that certain beaches have recently had new wheelchair access added to them, allowing people that need a wheelchair to not just look at the beach from a distance, but to be able to go onto the beach and even put their feet in the sea,”

“I had a conversation with a family who used to come to Tenby for a holiday three times a year, but sadly one of their members was now in a wheelchair, and what really saddened me was the fact that they now avoid Tenby due to it being so wheelchair unfriendly (their words, not mine),” she continued.

Speaking at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, Clr. Mrs. Sam Skyrme-Blackhall said that she was delighted to announce that following a meeting with Pembrokeshire County Council’s access officer Alan Hunt, a beach friendly wheelchair would now be introduced at Castle Beach down by the harbour area, with more to follow.

She said that it was the first step for Tenby to encourage disabled and elderly people to enjoy the ‘glorious Blue Flag beaches’ that the resort had to offer by making them more accessible.

“These are very different to normal wheelchairs and are specifically designed to use on sandy beaches,” she explained.

“We’re now looking at the best access points and where there is enough room for storage. I would like to say a huge thank you to Mike Lindsay at the Dennis Cafe alongside Castle Beach for agreeing to facilitate storage for the first beach wheelchair we will be introducing

“The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority have agreed to this, and we are hopeful of getting the first one ready for the rest of the holiday season.

“We are also hopeful that another will follow for the North Beach too and will then look to extend the scheme over to South Beach,” continued Clr. Skyrme-Blackhall who said that the cost of each wheelchair was around £4,000.

“We are also going to look at ones designed for children too, which cost in the region of £1,500,” she added.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown flagged up an issue with sand on slipways leading down to the beaches that needed looking into especially the South Beach, which could cause problems for wheelchair users.

“It’s mainly on the South Beach due to the rise in sand on the back end of the beaches, but it’s developed in to something unbelievable, so much so that the ice cream vans are struggling to access the beach on the dual slipway from the car park. You wouldn’t know there was a board there in fact!

“I know its natures way of doing things, but we use our beaches, so I just want to see these areas cleared of sand,” she added.

Clr. Paul Rapi said that some of the area was cleared at the end of February but the slipway wasn’t cleared and now the car park was full of sand again.

Clr. Skyrme-Blackhall said that she had experienced similar issues leading to the North Beach with sand on the slipways causing issues for wheelchair users.

“The idea would be to transfer someone in a wheelchair over to the beach friendly wheelchairs at the bottom of the slip before the beach begins, so I understand the problem and perhaps it’s something I can go and look at again with the access officer Mr. Hunt,”?she said.

Tenby’s Mayor, Clr. Tony Brown praised the promising work carried out and said that it was something to look forward to.

He also said that he was pleased that steps were in place to try and help Tenby become a more dementia friendly town after he recently attended a ‘Dementia Friendly Engagement Event’ held at St Teilo’s Church Hall hosted by Dementia Communities, The Alzheimer’s Society and The Royal Voluntary Service.d

“There were some good ideas put forward and it was an interesting meeting. I would encourage business and shop owners across the town to go to the next meeting on Thursday, June 27, to see what they can do to make Tenby a more dementia friendly resort,” he added.