Cabinet member’s caravan petition to be heard at special meeting

Bruce Sinclair – Local Democracy Reporter

An online petition by a senior Pembrokeshire councillor calling for a halt to any new caravan sites in areas “already at capacity” is to be considered at a special meeting.

Amroth and Saundersfoot North county councillor – and Cabinet Member for Corporate Finance – Cllr Alec Cormack created the petition “To stop all new caravan sites in areas of the county that are already at capacity, including Pleasant Valley, Summerhill and surrounding areas close to the coast and National Park, and around Narberth as well as New Hedges and the area around Broadmoor and Penally”.

The officially approved petition on the council’s website ran from September to October, and attracted 1,251 signatures.

After meeting the threshold for a debate at council, it will now be considered at a special extraordinary meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, to be held on November 10.

Capacity

The petition states: “Some areas of Pembrokeshire have a lot of caravan sites and some areas have none. We’re conducting this petition to get Pembrokeshire County Council to stop allowing any new caravan sites in those areas that are already full to capacity.

“In 2019 PCC commissioned a study by independent experts, White Associates, to look at the whole of Pembrokeshire in detail in order to figure out where we could have new caravan sites and which areas were already full to capacity.

“They used aerial photography of the whole county to identify where there was capacity for new caravan sites.”

The petition says the report, available on the county council’s website “identified that there were already areas of South Pembrokeshire that were at capacity, including Pleasant Valley, Summerhill and surrounding areas close to the coast and National Park, and around Narberth as well as New Hedges and the area around Broadmoor and Penally”.

It adds: “Despite having had the report now for almost four years, PCC ignores it when applications for new caravan sites are being considered. It appears that PCC want to wait until the next Local Development Plan (‘LDP2’) is introduced before taking any notice of this expert evidence.

“So, if, over the next couple of years, a new caravan site is proposed for say Penally or Pleasant Valley, then the council will ignore their own evidence that those areas are already at capacity. In fact, they will probably not even inform the councillors making the decision that this evidence exists.

“As county councillor for Amroth and Saundersfoot North I find this situation unacceptable. It could easily lead to overdevelopment in these ‘at capacity’ areas.”