​A COUNTY-WIDE report on retail in Pembrokeshire has found that continuing with a retail development on Narberth’s former school site will lead to an oversupply of retail space in Narberth and have an adverse account on town centre trade.

In fact, there is no forecast need for new retail floor space in the town, which is highlighted as a well-performing town centre, appealing to the tourism market.

The troubled development site is the subject of a Council Committee meeting on Friday (Feb 3), at which a number of options for the development will be considered.

Among the issues the committee will consider is the demolition of the building, which we understand is unlikely to be done before March 31 – not least as the former development partners the council selected for the former school site had not even carried out a full asbestos survey of the premises in all the time they had control of it.

In addition, a check of the planning record has revealed that since two years have elapsed since the last bat survey of the old school building, there will need to be a fresh survey before any works can take place.

These factors effectively make demolition of the school unlikely in the short term, meaning that the originally suggested levelling of the whole site to create a temporary car park is a non-starter.

The council favours demolishing the buildings, retaining the playground parking area as a permanent extension to Town Moor Car Park and offering the remaining front part of the site for development. However, the council will consider offering the property to the market or redeveloping the site as a joint venture with either a commercial or residential developer.

However, such a project would proceed with no guarantee that a developer will be interested in a joint venture or even that a retail partner would be available. Worryingly, it appears that its development directorate, headed by Dr Steven Jones, lacks the ability or skills to deliver a scheme without being wholly reliant on its partner from start to finish. That conclusion has implications for other schemes the council is undertaking and funding and its relationships with development partners.

As a sop to the local community, the council will also hold a consultation event to discuss the options.
However, one option that has been ruled out is retaining the building for community use on the grounds.

The Herald can report that among the reasons for ruling out the community option is the very poor condition of the building, which it is proposed makes refurbishment prohibitively expensive, and would raise expectations of a free community asset transfer.

Moreover, the council consider it is unlikely the community can raise sufficient funds to refurbish and maintain the building and that even if it did, the funding could take years to obtain, by which time the building will have deteriorated even further.

Whichever option the council ultimately follows, it suffers the risk of reputational damage resulting from the failure to secure the original development – even at a reduced price and with the developer being offered a seven-figure loan by the council on terms that the public are not allowed to know.