Complaints about poor mobile phone signal and coverage in Tenby and its surrounding area has prompted a county councillor to raise the subject with Pembrokeshire County Council’s trading standards department - especially with some local independent traders counting on such service to run their businesses.

In a small town such as Tenby with a population of just over 4,000 that rises up to over 60,000 during the summer holiday season, mobile phone coverage suffers substantially during this time of year.

In correspondence sent to the Local Authority, Tenby’s county councillor for the north ward Cllr Michael Williams explained: “I am receiving many complaints regarding the extremely poor mobile phone coverage in the area.

“Individual customers are paying high prices for a level of coverage which appears to get worse every summer season, and according to phone companies it is due to the considerable increase in visitors which puts strain on the system.

“This explanation is totally unsatisfactory given the level of charges. Could there be an investigation in to the level of service offered to customers, as currently the level of service does not reflect the amounts charged by mobile phone companies.

“Many small businesses rely on mobile signals for their businesses,” he added.