Local councillors have backed the views of residents living by St. John’s Hill who have appealed for retrospective building work on a property in the vicinity to cease as they believe the design is too intrusive and against what has been agreed by National Park planning officers.

A planning application for a variation of a condition to allow changes to approved drawings, to amend footprint and add an additional storey over a garage block retrospectively at a property at Zion Gardens, on St. John’s Hill, came before members of Tenby town council at their meeting on Tuesday night.

A letter of objection to the plans from residents of Merlins Court who live near to the property was also presented to councillors at the meeting, asking them for support in contesting the variation of the previously approved drawings, stating that they were ‘all horrified’ at the height of the building.

“The additional storey over the garage block has already been built and work is still continuing daily inside the building,” stated the correspondence.

“We are all horrified at the height of this building. It dominates the skyline and is totally out of keeping with the surrounding residences,” continued the correspondence, which has also been sent to local AM Angela Burns and MP Simon Hart, as well as Tenby county councillor for the North ward, Clr. Michael Williams, who also sits on the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s development management committee as vice-chairman.

Letters of objection have also been sent to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority (PCNPA) planning case officers stating that the scale of the development has ‘enormous impact on the appearance of this part pf the National Park conservation area’.

Discussing the matter at Tuesday night’s meeting, councillors also relayed their concerns on the retrospective aspect of the application, with the town clerk Andrew Davies informing them that PCNPA enforcement officers were aware of the matter and that the applicants had been advised to halt work until the planning process had been completed and the application had gone before the development management committee again.

“They take the risk of the work being built and then taken down if they don’t follow the proper process,” he said.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown said that the town council had pointed out originally that they that they felt that the plans were intrusive on residents in that area, but that PCNPA hadn’t listened to their recommendation.

“I agree that this is very intrusive on people, and we should make sure that if the application is refused by the National Park committee, then they put a stop to the works and take down what has been built,” said Clr. Tony Brown.

Clr. Trevor Hallett agreed, and pointed out once again that retrospective planning was happening far too often in Tenby.

“The developer starts work without consulting and they are not complying with the original plan. This is very bad on local people, who find out suddenly that plans are being altered.

“Enough is enough, PCNPA should be strong enough, as this is happening far too often, and they should be made to take it down,” continued Clr. Hallett.

Correspondence from Tenby Civic Society’s planning sub committee also came before councillors on the application, who stated: “Our request to have the visual mass of the upper rear elevation broken up by varied surface treatment is ignored in the proposals.

“We have therefore to return our view that three stories are too many and dominate the character of the site and its walls and surroundings - an attractive modernist design is here flawed in this setting by allowing three stories,” they added.

Councillors agreed to recommend refusal for the application and pass their views onto PCNPA.