Local councillors are to revisit a bright idea to light up Tenby’s historic town walls.

Following the felling of all 19 of the red horse chestnut trees along the resort’s South Parade last month because of fungal infection, councillors have stated that they have now been presented with a ‘blank canvas’ to determine what should be prioritised for that area of the town.

Speaking at Tuesday night’s meeting of Tenby Town Council, Clr. Paul Rapi told his colleagues that this was now an opportunity to put forward their suggestions.

“I think it should remain as it is now, with no more trees,” he said.

“Nothing can be put back there for a while anyway it seems, as the soil is contaminated, but I can’t see the point in putting trees back at all.

“We have an opportunity to do what we’ve wanted to for many years now, and illuminate the town walls, with floodlighting on the floor shining up, so it’s not obtrusive.

“The walls, now we can see them, are filthy, so it is an important priority that CADW start cleaning them up as well.

“The current doors in the walls need addressing, too, as I don’t think some of them are fitting, and we need ones that are sensitive to the medieval period of the walls. We also need to take down the advertising signs on them.

“The repairing of the pavement of the South Parade needs to be carried out, too, as it’s dangerous

“This is the first opportunity we’ve had to illuminate our town walls, and we need to move on this ASAP, and not waste a day!” continued Clr. Rapi.

The Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, agreed, and said that the idea of illuminating the town walls had been touted for the past 20 years, and now was an ideal time to put a plan into action.

“We were told previously that the possibility of a bat feeding over by the Imperial near to the walls prevented us once, but according to a recent survey there is nothing living there now, so we don’t have to worry about that.

“I also know someone who can advise us on securing Lottery funding for such a project, but the first thing we have to do to get the ball rolling is get permission from Pembrokeshire County Council and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority,” continued Clr. Mrs. Lane, who explained that the floral planters introduced along the South Parade were a ‘short term solution’, but that it would be a good idea to introduce a ‘suggestion box’ at the town council offices for feedback from the public.

The town clerk, Andrew Davies, said that PCC were custodians of the town walls, and that PCNPA would need to grant planning permission for such a project. He also advised that an application would have to go to CADW for ‘scheduled monument consent’.

Mr. Davies told councillors that Polly Groom, Cadw’s regional inspector of ancient monuments, had suggested that with a ‘light touch’ approach, with careful cabling and installation of well-designed lights, that ‘scheduled monument consent’ could be obtainable and that subject to other issues (protected species, neighbours etc), a good lighting scheme could be considered to enhance the setting of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown told her colleagues that since the trees had come down, hundreds of people had told her how lovely the South Parade and the town walls looked.

“We shouldn’t go cap in hand to PCC or PCNPA asking them that we want to illuminate our town walls, we should say that this is what Tenby wants and needs, to celebrate our historic walls and the fact that we are a medieval town. We as a town council need to lead this project!

“We have got to make sure that the town’s people are behind us, and I think that they are,” added Clr. Mrs. Maureen Ward.

Mr. Davies suggested that the legislation used to remove the trees stated that the Welsh Government stipulates that they have to be replaced ‘one for one’.

“PCNPA’s tree and landscape officer, Mike Higgins, feels that the trees add amenity to that area, but admitted that he would be happy to consider perhaps six to eight replacement trees,” he explained.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter said that the town council needed to ‘fight on with this’ as she certainly didn’t want to see any trees planted back along there.

“We want to see our town walls,” she stated, with Clr. Mrs. Lane agreeing and suggesting that she was sure that Tenby in Bloom and other organisations would be prepared to stump up funding towards trees to be planted somewhere else in Tenby.

“I have no issue with replacement trees being planted, but in the right place, not in front of a monument,” she remarked.

“Nowhere else in Europe that we have looked at has trees covering their historic town walls; we want to show them off!

“I suggest we have a meeting with PCC and PCNPA representatives and invite them to speak to us,” continued the Mayor.

“I want to keep this on as an agenda item,” said Clr. Mrs. Thomas.

“To start with, the comments seemed to be that people didn’t want to see the trees coming down, but the vast majority now seem to be appreciating and admiring the town walls, and don’t want to see them hidden again!” she added.

FOOTNOTE: the planning sub committee of Tenby Civic Socity has written to PCNPA regarding the removal of the chestnut trees along South Parade, stating that there were some concerns that some of the trees appeared visually to have ‘sound sections’ when cut down.

“As an organisation that campaigned for these trees to be planted, we want to be able to have an informed discussion at our next executive committee about this and also to understand what replacements are being considered,” wrote Harry Gardiner of the society.

“This avenue has been the subject of many of our discussions in the past and the society will be anxious to see this new situation resolved,” he added.