A spruce-up of Tenby’s seaside street furniture has been called for, with parts of the town looking ‘tired’ town councillors have stated.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the town council, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown told her fellow members that the resort hadn’t had it’s street furniture painted for a long while.

She wanted to know firstly if Pembrokeshire County Council were going to undetake such a task, and if not, asked if the town council could invite volunteers together from the Men’s Shed or a similar group.

“There is furniture around St Mary’s and South Parade that has not been done except what our own handyman has done,” she remarked.

“Can PCC contribute towards the paint,” she asked? “As the Queen’s celebration approaches, we should brighten and tidy up the town - try and get together a group of people.”

Clr. Paul Rapi said he had been ‘harping on’ for about a year about the poor state of parts of the town, and it was not just benches, but also lamps and railings.

“The whole place needs a lick of paint, and lights need repairing - we need to push PCC,” he said.

“We should not end up paying. The County Council took responsibility for this off the borough council and if they can’t afford to maintain it then they should give it back to us,” continued Clr. Rapi.

“Without pre-empting Cabinet’s decision and a formal announcement, we cannot go into too much detail,” said Clr. Laurence Blackhall.

“However, our EPF bid has gone through the first stage of funding and part of this is to do all benches on the South Parade. At least 30 benches will be tackled in the first phase and we will also be able to catalogue the condition of all the other benches and create a cycle of what needs doing.

“The condition of our street furniture is poor yes, but this is the start of the plan. One of the biggest challenges is to determine who owns what bench and who is responsible for maintenance.

“Once this is established it can be followed with a detailed plan and a future potential EPF bid. Volunteers to take on maintenance has merit and should be included,” he continued.

With the town council at the stage of awaiting final approval from PCC Cabinet on the funding bid, he wanted to be in a position to start action, such as the remedial work to railings and benches, as soon as possible.

Rather than setting up another committee he suggested the town council draw up an Implementation Plan.

Clr. Blackhall ran through the funds becoming available with the town council looking at around £135K to spend on gardens, benches, the Jubilee Play Area, a community engagement, and internet connectivity to community buildings.

“We need to plan early so that things can get under way before Easter, and we need to be in a position that when cabinet say yes, then we can place orders.” explained Clr. Blackhall.

Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane agreed with Clr. Mrs. Brown in stating that the matter was urgent, as we were already in February, and something needed to get off the ground now.

She asked if the EPF includes the painting of benches and does the cost of the paint come into this.

“We also had our own plan for funding this work, so there is nothing to stop us doing this in the meantime,” she felt.

The town Clerk reminded councillors that, last year, they had approached Pembrokeshire County Council's environmental services operations manager Neil McCarthy, who had said that the town council could buy the paint through them so that the same paint was being used. The town council had then put out the job for tender in the Observer newspaper but no one took up the tender. One company asked for details and then nothing further was heard.

The Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sam Skyrme-Blackhall agreed with trying to utilise volunteers as Tenby looked tired.

Clr. Mrs. Brown proposed that the town council look for volunteers to help paint the benches. Clr. Mrs. Lane, supported the idea adding that perhaps an organisation may like to sponsor the paint and then the bench could have a plaque to say who they are being supported by.