An Amroth business owner has written to the Observer to express the village residents’ “firm belief, that Pembrokeshire County Council holds them and the businesses of Amroth in total contempt.”
Ian Wilkinson, of Templebar Inn, writes of the Council’s “utter disdain for those who pay their rates and taxes towards the salaries of those who should work in the residents’ very best interests.”
Mr Wilkinson draws attention to the Council’s “continual closing of access to Amroth and the surrounding areas over a period of more than a decade - and during the high season.”
“In fact this year we have also had the Long Course Weekend with all the usual attendant problems spread over a weekend.
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“To cap it all, almost unbelievably, access to the front was severely restricted for a week or so, over the August Bank Holiday and to add insult to injury, this for roadworks in another county! We strongly suspect that contractors were not in fact working over the bank holiday itself, but clearly PCC is not interested in few ratepayers and their access rights in Amroth.
“One final act of derision by Pembroke CC was the closure around ‘The Ironman’ - for the 13th year running.”
“Amroth is turned into a ghost town, ratepayers are imprisoned in their houses and businesses are deprived of their customers,” he added, citing examples of…
- a mother not allowed out of her drive to pick her 10 year old daughter up after weekend tuition.
- numerous instances of carers not being allowed to get to their clients.
- a young lad not allowed to walk down the road to work, through the actions of over-zealous marshals.
“The potential is there to create a disaster… perhaps a matter of life and death.”
Mr Wilkinson adds that this is not an attack on Ironman and other events, but on the attitude of the Council to residents.
“What infuriates residents almost more than anything else, is that past years’ complaints have regularly been brushed aside with promises to do things differently or with more consideration. People here have long memories and are not simply going to forget about such promises!”
“It strikes us as hugely ironic that PCC pays for these events and situations which disrupt, inconvenience and impoverish our lives,” he concludes. “One has to wonder that, if they can so finance such absurdities from our rates, then why can’t they find the money for our sea defences?”