A DECISION on whether to grant a license for Tenby’s Summer Spectacular events, which have been cancelled this year, is expected in a few days, councillors hearing claims the current arrangement is “a disaster waiting to happen”.

Tenby’s Summer Spectacular is held every year in August and the events have been a summer highlight in the resort for many years.

Tenby Round Table are the organisers of the Tenby harbour-based events which feature food, drink and live music entertainment, culminating in a popular fireworks display.

Late last month, Tenby Round Table said that the two spectaculars scheduled for this August were provisionally cancelled, pending a deadline of Friday, June 26, given to Pembrokeshire County Council.

The round table volunteers have said negotiations with Pembrokeshire County Council’s public realm department have failed to produce a clear, workable agreement on temporary restrictions for pedestrian access to the harbour and its beach during the event.

Without that, they say, they cannot legally or safely control crowd numbers.

The licence covers Tenby Harbour car park and extends to the top of Penniless Cove Hill, with a stage area, stalls, stands and a refreshment area including a bar selling soft and alcoholic drinks in cans. The sale of alcohol is authorised by way of a temporary event notice rather than as a licensable activity on the Premises Licence.

It is an open-air event with no fences or barriers and customers wishing to enter the licensed area can make a voluntary donation to the organisation, there no ticketing or charge for entry.

The July meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s licensing sub-committee considered an application for a review of the premises licence for the Spectacular, submitted by Dyfed Powys Police, which said the current license is “no longer fit for purpose”.

At the meeting a representative for Dyfed-Powys Police, who invited the committee to revoke the current licence, said it was “a disaster waiting to happen” in its current format, the police expressing concerns about public safety and overcrowding, with a danger of “crowd surging” and limited escape routes at an event emergency services say should have a maximum capacity of 1,600 people in the harbour area rather than the estimated 3,000 attracted.

While stressing the police were not against the event, he said it “has evolved from a family event to a large-scale drinking environment”.

Concerns were raised by other emergency services; the ambulance service raising concerns about access, and the fire service raising concerns about public safety.

Members heard the event had become “a victim of its own success,” with ever greater crowds attracted.

Pembrokeshire County Council Lead Licensing Officer Geraint Griffiths said the current event was “very dangerous,” and an “incident waiting to happen,” any surge of the crowd being potentially devastating.

Tenby Round Table disputed some of the figures produced by the emergency services about incidents in previous years, saying they were not connected to the event.

The ‘Table members present stressed they had tried to address the issue of access to the licensed area: “This year’s event has been cancelled, it arose from the sheer volume of people visiting Tenby creating a question we have tried to get answered for the best part of a year; without a clear answer we couldn’t finish our licensing plan and couldn’t responsibly hold our events.”

Committee member Cllr Mark Carter suggested the event had become “too successful,” and may have “outgrown its current location,” the Round Table saying any move, while still keeping fireworks at the harbour would be logistically difficult.

Cllr Carter said access to the event from the nearby beach was “the elephant in the room,” hoping the organisers would present a robust scheme to deal with that issue.

Members were given four options about how to proceed with the licensing, including revoking it or amending it.

Chair Cllr Tim Evans closed the meeting saying the committee would deliberate, a decision expected to take a day-plus, with a decision in writing expected within five working days.

PEMBROKESHIRE’S new Conservative county councillor, who won a seven-way battle for the Pembroke Dock Market ward seat, has said he is “fully focussed on representing everyone in Market Ward and being a strong voice for Pembroke Dock”.

The seat was made vacant following the death of veteran councillor Brian Hall.

Before he passed away in April, Councillor Brian Hall had held the Pembroke Dock Market ward seat since 1996.

Since that seat became vacant, seven hopefuls put their names forward to represent the Market ward, with an election being held on July 9, the results announced the following morning.

The election for the ward, which has an electorate of 1,442 voters, saw a 28 per cent turnout.

Winner was Welsh Conservatives candidate Jamie Street with 143 votes, approximately 36 per cent of all votes cast.

Second place, with 100 votes, went to Independent candidate Claire Francis-Boswell, who can be commiserated by recently becoming a town council member for the very same ward.

Other candidates, and their share of the votes, were: Chloe Louise Richards, Plaid Cymru, 79 votes; Ryan Morgan, Reform UK, 48; Paul Haywood Dowson, Independent, 11; Lee Herring, Welsh Liberal Democrats, nine; Hayley Wood, Independent, seven.

Following his win, Jamie said: “I would like to sincerely thank everyone who placed their trust in me by voting in this election.

“It is a tremendous honour and a privilege to have been elected as the county councillor for the Market Ward, I will work hard to repay that confidence.

“I would also like to thank my fellow candidates for running a positive and respectful campaign.

“Now the campaign is over, I am fully focussed on representing everyone in Market Ward and being a strong voice for Pembroke Dock.

“Throughout the campaign I promised to listen to residents, stand up for our community and work tirelessly to secure the investment, opportunities and improvements our area deserves.

“I am eager to get started on the many issues you told me on the doorstep and will do everything I can to achieve the very best outcomes for local people.”

PLANS for 5G Vodafone telecommunications works at Haverfordwest’s telephone exchange have been refused on the grounds of the impact on the town’s conservation area.

In an application to Pembrokeshire County Council, Reading-based Cellnex UK, through agent WHP Telecoms Ltd sought permission for the installation of replacement telecommunications apparatus and ancillary equipment at Haverfordwest exchange on Perrotts Avenue.

The works proposed included the removal of the existing antenna and the installation of six antennas.

A supporting statement said the application for the rooftop of the existing three-storey Haverfordwest Telephone Exchange, was for a 5G mobile base station for the mobile network operator Vodafone Ltd in conjunction with Cornerstone; the site owned and operated by Cellnex UK, a radio site infrastructure provider.

It added: “The proposal seeks to upgrade the existing equipment in situ to ensure that Vodafone Ltd. customers continue to benefit from modern and reliable connectivity. The current equipment has not been upgraded for a number of years and now requires significant modernisation to support the latest wireless technologies and meet the needs of both customers and the wider community.”

It went on to say: “Unlike earlier generations of mobile connectivity, 5G has more significant technical and operational requirements and this has implications on the amount, height, position and design of the apparatus on the rooftop of this building.

“The service provided by the operator is in the public interest and is in very high demand, with 5G being the next and highly significant advancement in mobile connectivity. In the UK there are now more almost 92.5 million subscriptions to mobile networks and mobile services now exceed fixed landlines in terms of customer numbers and usage.”

An officer report recommending refusal said: “The siting and design of the development are considered to be insensitive, incongruous, and harmful to the character and appearance of the Haverfordwest Conservation Area. The proposal fails to preserve or enhance the significance of the designated heritage asset, contrary to the fundamental objectives of sustainable development.”

It added: “While the proposed masts are of a broadly comparable height to the previously approved [2007] installation, the current proposal materially differs in both form and visual impact. In particular, the introduction of three separate telecommunications masts to facilitate 5G infrastructure results in a more prominent and visually intrusive arrangement that is not considered to be subservient to the host building, unlike the previously approved tubed apparatus.”

The application was refused on grounds including the visual impact and no biodiversity enhancement measures included as part of the proposed scheme.