Thank you to all who attended last night's SCT Business Forum.

We received apologies from those who were unable to attend due to work commitments (thank you!) and the general feeling was for the Forum to continue as it provides a valuable platform to discuss ongoing covid-19 awareness, give feedback regarding safety procedures that are being implemented and suggest new ideas and/or tweak existing strategies to help keep Saundersfoot as safe as possible over the coming weeks.

Joining us last night was Pembrokeshire County Council Street Care Manager Marc Owen who answered queries and offered advice on the social distancing concerns that people had raised within the village. We currently have additional space along Cambrian Terrace and The Strand to enable a 'shared space' for food establishments to have extra outdoor seating and the public to have a widened pavement area to help with social distancing and queuing outside shops. It was felt that the public walking along the Strand did not seem to be using this space, opting to walk on the road instead. It was felt signage may be necessary to encourage people to walk within the cordoned off area. Marc Owen was happy to listen to discussions from Holly Thompson and Debbie Ludlow regarding managing social distancing between customers eating outside premises and the public walking past. Marc Owen also informed us that a designated additional outside space was being considered for The Harbour Bar, infront of the premises on the pavement to help reduce customers consuming alcohol off the premises. Marc Owen is meeting with Periwinkle and Little & Large Lite Bites in Saundersfoot on Wednesday to discuss and understand the concerns they have raised.

Other feedback from those business owners who attended said most of their customers were positive about the safety procedures in place around the village and in the businesses. It was felt that the public were more confident about coming into shops and social distancing and procedures on the whole were being adhered to within the premises. Cllr Neil Sefton mentioned that the SCC Facebook page had received a few negative comments regarding some blue badge parking spaces being allocated for shared space. Cllr Baker reassured the forum that although some designated blue badge holder spaces had been temporarily 'lost', spaces had been retained in The Strand for access to the pharmacy and hair salon and other remaining spaces were unaltered. There were still spaces available for blue badge holders to park in other bays outside Spar, along the Strand and Cambrian Terrace. All feedback was noted with intent to report findings to the Pembrokeshire County Council.