A call to refuse Pembrokeshire Council plans for an overnight motorhome and campervan parking site close to Fishguard’s ferry by some of its own officers has been withdrawn, but the Town Council has raised its own objections.

A trial scheme for overnight motorhome parking facilities at the Goodwick Moor car park, The Parrog, was mooted last year after a February 2024 council Cabinet-backed trial scheme for ‘Pembs Stop’ campervan and motorhomes facilities at four car parks was later dropped.

It had initially been agreed that car parks at North Beach, Tenby; Goodwick Moor, Goodwick; Townsmoor, Narberth; and Western Way, Pembroke Dock would form the trial areas operating year-round at £10 a night for a trial 18-month period, with the intention not to create ‘campsites’.

That planned trial received national coverage, with a discussion on a phone-in programme on BBC Radio Wales.

Local tourism businesses had said the proposals will harm them, and concerns about the trial were also raised by the official tourism industry group for Pembrokeshire, Visit Pembrokeshire.

Following that, a special council scrutiny committee meeting was held last April where the scheme was overwhelmingly rejected; a later September 2024 Cabinet agreeing to not proceed with the scheme but instead trial an overnight stopover facility for motorhomes at Goodwick Moor car park, linked to the ferry port, the 18-month trial was initially expected to start this March.

A formal planning application for a conditional change of use of the Goodwick Moor Car Park scheme “to allow for the sleeping overnight between 7am and 9am for motorhomes/camper vans only” has been submitted by the council but the authority’s own Pollution Control Team had initially recommended refusal.

In its first report, the team said: “The Pollution Control Team have a history of complaints associated with this particular location where it has been utilised for overnight parking of heavy goods vehicles.”

It said the proposal “would undoubtedly represent an intensification of the site for the overnighting of transient vehicles” and it would be placed in an untenable position where it would not be able to enforce any noise complaints at a site where it has “historically been an issue for overnighting vehicles” through a noise abatement notice.

Since then, the council has submitted further information in the form of an operational statement to support the application and to address previous concerns.

That plan includes greater mitigation details of the 18-month trial “with assessment as to the suitability of the use of the Goodwick Moor site for overnighting vehicles to then take place after the trial period”.

The control team’s statement, now in conditional support of the scheme, says, adding: “The operation of the facility proposed is detailed as a one-night maximum overnight parking use for motorhome type vehicles associated with the use of the local ferry terminal service.”

However, Fishguard and Goodwick Town Council has objected to the application, raising concerns of noise nuisance to residents and other users, a lack of provision of facilities for overnight motorhome/campervans, saying the proposal would have an adverse impact on existing businesses and residents, a loss of community amenity, a loss of evening car parking facility for existing community groups, and poor road surfacing.

The application will be considered by county planners at a later date.