Tenby Town Council have issued a plea for families that have memorial benches situated on one of the town’s iconic areas, dedicated to the memory of loved ones, to come forward to enable them to update their records.

“While the town handyman undertakes a rolling programme of painting and minor repairs to the benches on Castle Hill, some of them are starting to become beyond economical repair and should really be removed in the interests of health and safety,” clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, recently told councillors at their meeting.

“Ideally we’d like to contact the families out of courtesy to let them know that they need to be removed, but as the records of the memorial benches only date back to 1997, and as some have been there since the ’60s, we may have trouble tracking down some families,” he continued.

Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown came forward with an idea that she’d seen in Sussex, where councils removed the inscribed plaques on damaged benches and placed them in a big display, which meant that the people the benches were dedicated to were not forgotten.

“I think that’s a really good idea, as at the end of the day, a bench only has a certain lifetime, and we can’t really afford to keep replacing them,” agreed the Mayor, Clr. Paul Rapi.

Anyone who thinks that they may have family connections to memorial benches in that area, is asked to please contact the town council offices on 01834 842730 or via email at [email protected]