Concerns over parking issues at Tenby Leisure Centre which has led to vehicles being ticketed needs addressing asap, local councillors have stated this week.

The Mayor of Tenby agreed with her colleague, Clr. Will Crockford, at Tuesday night’s meeting of Tenby Town Council that drastic improvements needed to be made to the overflow car park of the facility to accommodate its users.

Clr. Crockford claimed that 45 parking tickets had been issued to vehicles at the facility since August of last year, on some occasions to those that were dropping off children for swimming lessons, as they had failed to park in designated spaces, as there simply were not enough available.

“They want to encourage people to lead an active and healthy lifestyle, but then these people that have been hit with fines, feel targeted. The parking at the leisure centre is inadequate, especially at peak times, and it will discourage people from using the facility,” he remarked, suggesting that PCC’s parking enforcement officers needed to be more lenient to those using the leisure centre.

“The overflow car park is poorly lit, dangerous to cross to around that bend, and a lot of the time underwater due to flooding!” he continued.

The town clerk, Andrew Davies, told members that he had spoken to Marc Owen, streetcare manager at PCC, on the matter of vehicles being fined on site, and he explained that users at busy times were not parking in bays, but on the verges etc, and that he had introduced more signage directing them to the overflow car park.

Clr. Mrs. Lane said that she had also been approached by someone who had complained about being ticketed, claiming that they were unable to park in a designated bay, as the hedge growth was encroaching onto the space.

“I think the way to go about this is to tell PCC that they need to improve the overflow car park if they expect to take money from members to use their facility,” she said.

“The car park needs to be properly surfaced, with more lighting provided, as it is a danger to families and young children using it,” continued Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall requested that PCC provide some information on what is proposed for the overflow car park in the future, in light of the development of a 4G pitch due to take place in that area, where it had also been touted that a bridge be built from the car park to the Clicketts.