An 'A-frame' attack was launched by councillors in Tenby this week, stating that the county council need to stop 'pussyfooting' around the matter which is causing obstruction to the resort's streets.

Correspondence from Giles Birt, of Birt and Co, was brought before councillors at their meeting on Tuesday night, on the matter, showing the letter that Mr. Birt had written to Pembrokeshire County Council's street care manager, Marc Owen, addressing the concerns on the situation in Tenby where A-frames are blocking pavements, and in some cases the road.

"The situation has become worse this year, and some businesses have also taken to putting tables and chairs on the pavement, even though the town is not currently pedestrianised and the pavements are not wide enough," wrote Mr. Birt.

"It is only a matter of time before somebody is hurt because they are unable to walk on the pavement and have ti step out into the road in order to get up or down the road. Tenby's pavements are quite narrow at best, but these A-frames and other obstructions reduce the width of the pavement so that it is only possible for one person to pass. Everybody else has to walk in the road," he continued.

Responding, Clr. Will Rossiter told his colleagues that he agreed with the points made in the letter.

"It's a case of private businesses using public land for their own purposes.

"I strongly urge Mr. Marc Owen to come down to Tenby with a truck to take away any signage found to be illegal.

"There's no point pussyfooting around this, the county council have done nothing when we've brought this up before, and ignored us at every opportunity. They need to do something before there is an accident this summer," he continued.

Clr. Lawrence Blackhall said he felt it was quite a complex issue, as some properties had a certain amount of curtilage outside their premises that may allow them to put signage out.

"Some businesses have enhanced the street scape with what they've done, by putting flowers outside for example, but there need to be a balance, and absolute clarity on the areas that can be used," he remarked, asking for a 'street map' to be produced which clearly defines areas that can be used, and those that are off limits, so rules wouldn't be breached.

Town clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies told members that he had notification that letters from the county council had gone to 10 places that had been putting tables and chairs outside wrongly.

Clr. Mrs. Trisha Putwain agreed that something needed to be done on the matter.

"We met with Mr. Owen two years ago, when he said that the Chamber of Trade would police it and that reason would prevail, but nothing happened!"

"We tried asking for a map before, but we should get rid of the menace first, and then think about a map, as it's generally obvious, which A-frames are legal and which aren't," added Clr. Mrs. Putwain.

The majority of councillors agreed that a letter be written to the county council's street care manager asking for immediate action to remove all A-frames causing obstruction in the town.