Tenby Chamber of Trade & Tourism

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 21^st April 2010

Apologies Matt & Ruth Goldwait, Marion Davies

Members present Andy Adamson, Jane Merrony, Lee Davies, Mike Thorne, Sue Roberts, Mike Evans, Chris Osborne, Janet Evans, Elaine Rowe, Giles Birt, David Randall, Julius Rhys-Davies

Matters Arising

Tudor Square

Before the works are completed in the Square the Tenby Conservation Forum have suggested to the town council that the delineation of parking bays etc could be identified with bollards and the traffic flow etc monitored which could possibly highlight any problems before the final stage of the works commences. The Chamber will make comment if the trial goes ahead.

The Chamber was informed that decriminalisation of parking will take place in January 2011.

Easter Bonnet Parade

The Chamber welcomed the offer of help from the Tenby & Saundersfoot Lions for this event and look forward to sharing the responsibility with the Lions next Easter. This years event showed a small profit.

Tenby Map

A quote has been received for the A4pads - 400pads - £644, 600pads - £818 (50 maps per pad). The town map would be on one side and a map of South Pembrokeshire on the reverse side showing the location of attractions in the South (Folly Farm, Heatherton, Battlefield Live, Manor Park, Ritec Valley Quad Bikes etc). This will be an excellent marketing opportunity for the attractions so they will be contacted and offered a reasonable advertising rate for inclusion on the pads. It is hoped that the pads can be offered free of charge to members.

Business rates

After the Budget Local Government Minister, Carl Sargeant announced an extension to the small business rate relief scheme in Wales. The Minister has agreed that the measure announced in respect of England by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his budget speech will apply in Wales. Around half of small businesses in Wales will pay no business rates for the year from 1 October 2010 and roughly 20% more will see their business rates significantly reduced.Â
The Non-Domestic Rating (Small Business Relief) (Wales) Order 2008 will be amended to increase the rateable value threshold at which properties qualify for 100% relief to £6,000 and a taper band of relief from 100% to50% up to a threshold of £12,000 from 1 October 2010 for one year.

This does not help many of the High Street businesses in Tenby however. Chambers of Trade and tourism organisations throughout Wales are lobbying to limit the increase in the multiplier (0.409) for next year.

Members have until 31^st March 2011 to appeal against their current rateable value.

Development Trust

All members had been invited to a meeting in New Hedges Village Hall on 29^th March when Alan Caldwell of the Comrie Development Trust in Scotland visited Tenby and Saundersfoot to explain how Comrie achieved success and how local communities could learn and benefit from it. Mr Caldwell had met with officers of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (PCNPA), Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) and local business people prior to the evening meeting.

Development Trusts are appearing all over the UK and have very good success rates of regeneration. The groups from Tenby and Saundersfoot have arisen from a desire to regenerate the town and do something about the growing number of derelict and under utilised sites in the Tenby and Saundersfoot communities. As a result an initial audit of the top 4/5 sites that may be suitable for development will take place. Clydach and Gorseinon have both dealt with the concept of social enterprise by providing successful community/day care centres.

The Chamber had agreed to facilitate the costs of setting up the Trust -£1175. Grants of £800 had been received from PCC Community Regeneration Fund and £300 from the Development Trust Association

Noticeboards

As the Chamber of Trade and Tourism was one of the funders of the project the Town Council had invited a representative to attend a meeting on Thursday 22^nd April at 4pm to discuss the controversy over the Notice Boards and the possibility of moving the one on the Croft. After some discussion the Chamber felt that having provided the funding for a notice board it could not cover the cost of moving it.

Tug of War

The Chair of the LVA will be contacted to take the idea forward to the pubs in the town.

Local Development Plan(LDP)

PCNPA published its LDP in 2009 and during the week commencing 12^th April 2010 representations were heard by a Welsh Assembly appointed Inspector, Mr Barry Juniper of the Planning Inspectorate of Wales. His job is to examine the soundness of the LDP for the PCNPA resulting in a report which is "binding" on the PCNPA.Â

MT attended the hearing on behalf of the Chamber who:-

• oppose residential development of car parks unless car parking spaces are maintained in the town and do not accept a park & ride scheme as a replacement
• oppose out of town retail development
• support PCNPA recommendations for affordable housing

Correspondence had been received from members with regard to the Chambers report for affordable housing which had been circulated to members in July 2009 for comments. No response was received so the Chambers report was submitted to the Inspector. Opinion now seems to have changed and those members present felt that 60% was too high, after much discussion somewhere between 20 - 40% was felt to be a more realistic figure. (Members will be contacted for their comments see below)

Note

There is a huge backlog of affordable housing provision so PCNPA seek to negotiate on sites for 2 or more residential units 50% affordable housing with the following exceptions where a higher percentage will be negotiated: Tenby (60%), Newport (70%), Saundersfoot (60%), Dale (80%), Dinas Cross (75%) and New Hedges (60%). One site at Crymych (the Depot site) is allocated for 100% affordable housing.

These thresholds and targets are to be used immediately from the adoption date, October 2009, and until the Local Development Plan is adopted – anticipated to be in 2011. This has already been applied to the Gatehouse development.

Tenby Town Councils housing needs survey identified 71 units were needed to meet demand but there is hardly any provision for new housing between New Hedges and Pendine.

Younger working households in Pembrokeshire face a house price to income ratio of 5.56 making it the second least affordable area in Wales and they are unable to get into the housing market so affordable housing is a way forward.

Everyone at the meeting felt that housing provision for locals was imperative.

Tourism is the lifeblood of Tenby and must be encouraged; the few sites available for residential development should be allowed to provide “simultaneous residential development on different sites in the same area to meet with affordable housing requirements suggested at somewhere between 20-40%" Members will be asked for feedback/comments so another report can be sent to the Inspector.

Gatehouse Plans

The plans are on display in PCNPA offices in South Parade and members are encouraged to view them and attend an open forum public consultation meeting on 29^th April at Church House from 4-8pm. Chamber representatives are also attending a meeting at 2pm.

Members are reminded of Policy 21 of the Joint Unitary Development Plan for Pembrokeshire (JUDP) which allows only for the conversion of hotels and guest houses whose continued use can be shown to be unviable or surplus to requirements.

 "Proposals which would result in the loss of the National Park's largest hotels (30bedspaces or more) will require particularly careful consideration. Large hotels are limited in number, they make a valuable contribution to the overall tourism product on offer and their replacement is unlikely in the long-term given the ever diminishing land supply of the National Park. Once gone, they are likely to be lost forever.

Hotels and guest houses often form part of the appeal and character of a town, village or area, which helps to attract visitors. In some instances, such as the Esplanade in Tenby they form an intrinsic element of the identity of a particular frontage. Larger hotels also often form important landmarks in the townscape or landscape"

Policy 21 Loss of Hotels and Guest Houses in the National Park

Hotels and guest-houses in the National Park will be retained unless it can be demonstrated that:

i) The potential for continued use of the facility has been shown to be un-viable; or

ii) The overall demand for this type of accommodation during peak periods will continue to be met within the town/village/area; and

iii) There is no adverse effect on the appeal and intrinsic character of the resort, area or frontage.

The change of use of hotels and guest houses with over 30 bed spaces will be permitted only in exceptional circumstances.

There will be a meeting on 5^th May at 7.30pm at The Fourcroft to compile a report to submit to PCNPA before the deadline on May 19^th. Members are urged to attend; this development would be one of the biggest in the town for many years.

AGM

An advert will be placed in the Tenby Observer informing members that the AGM will take place on 19^th May at 7.30pm

Mike Evans volunteered to become Membership Secretary, post to be ratified at the AGM.

Mike Thorne is retiring as Treasurer.

Correspondence

1. a reply to the letter sent last month had been received from Capita Symonds informing the Chamber that the programme of works for Tudor Square will finish on 28^th May and will be repeated for the summer of 2011.

2. a letter from the town clerk stating that as soon as an appointment of a council representative has been made he will notify the Chamber.

3. an invitation to a meeting with the developers of the gatehouse site from the town council

4. an invitation to a meeting with Tenby Events about the notice boards

Website statistics               Visits

Â	2007	2008	2009	2010
January		1280	2794	3203
February		1257	2696	3020
March		1637	3391	3824
April	123	2040	3553
May	1255	3962	3704
June	1256	4488	4586
July	743	4973	5573
August	1047	4656	5527
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AOB

The Chamber was informed that Narberth are appealing against the introduction of car parking charges. The Chamber will monitor this situation.

The Chamber welcomed the fact that the harbour boats were put into the water on April 1^st this year thus freeing up the harbour for tourists and will write to PCC supporting the same date for subsequent years.

The works to Cob Lane will now commence in October 2010

There needs to be consultation over road works in the town so they do not occur over any holiday period e.g at the bottom of Narberth Road

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The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 19^th May 2010 @ 7.30pm at The Fourcroft Hotel (following the AGM)