The application submitted to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority by Mr. PJSR Hill, Mr. DWR Hill, Mrs. ARR Wood and the Caister Castle Trust, which would see the development of up to 14 residential dwellings (including on-site affordable provision), came up for discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting of Tenby Town Council.
The plans also incorporate highways alterations to form a new access road and associated development infrastructure.
A pre-application consultation as part of the Welsh Assembly’s policy to publicise large scale developments, was discussed by councillors back in October, when members initially outlined their concerns over proposals to alter the road access, but had no objections to the housing development itself.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Clr. Laurence Blackhall and his fellow councillors suggested deferring the matter for a site meeting, as there were a number of issues they wished to raise concerning the plans.
They raised concerns over changes to the traffic junction for Lady Park, and felt that it was a bigger opportunity to improve the junction and also consider the introduction of further traffic calming measures in that area.
Councillors also claimed that there had been a lack of public information regarding the proposals circulated to residents in that area.
“The biggest impact of these plans will be the access in and out of Lady Park, and there seems to have been a shortage of information given to households in this area,” commented Clr. Blackhall.
Clr. Trevor Hallett remarked that this was the main road into Tenby and a ‘golden opportunity’ to improve the access junction by the Welcome to Tenby sign.
“At the moment, for me, these plans haven’t addressed both sides of the road well enough,” he said, with councillors agreeing to defer the matter and request a site meeting with the developers and representatives of Pembrokeshire County Council and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.
Tenby Civic Society’s planning sub-committee have also discussed the proposals and, although they welcome the development, they too have flagged up access and highways issues.
“Firstly, the positions of the two new junctions proposed should be adjusted to enable the inclusion of a northbound right turn lane into the new Lady Park junction, in addition to the southbound right turn lane into the new site,” commented the committee’s chair, Harry Gardiner.
“There are well over 100 houses in Lady Park and Upper Hill Park and only 14 in the new site, so the traffic flow case is obvious.
“We note that residents of Lady Park appear to be unaware of this junction proposal, despite the application being received in December.
“Conditions to reposition the ‘Welcome to Tenby’ feature, traffic information sign and old coach road mileage post are necessary to an outline permission.
“Other aspects of the applicants’ approach and plans are welcome,” he added.