Tenby's double whammy of strict National Park planning rules and high business rates during quiet winter months has been highlighted in the House of Commons by local MP Simon Hart.

Mr Hart was taking part in a debate about the future of the High Street and he took the opportunity to highlight the difficulties faced by businesses in coastal resorts.

"Tenby has a population of about 5,000 in winter and about 50,000 in the summer, but the ability to negotiate the rates is extremely limited," he pointed out.

"As a consequence, in the winter shops close, businesses reduce their output, boards go up in windows and people are laid off."

Mr Hart argued that businesses in tourist areas should be given transitional rate relief to take into account the huge variations between the summer and winter population.

"Why not have a system whereby rate relief can be more carefully applied in the lower winter months and made up when cash flow might be better in the more buoyant summer months?" he argued.

He added that whilst being in the National Park has significant tourism benefits, its stricter planning controls can make life tougher for High Street businesses.

He mentioned one example where a local estate agent was refused permission to move into a boarded up shop in the town centre - despite 20 other premises being empty on the High Street - because planning rules state that there could be no more businesses offering "services" instead of "sales".

"So a boarded-up shop that employs nobody and engages in no economic activity remains in the centre of that important town, whereas the alternative would have been to have the lights on in those premises for 364 days a year with six or seven people working inside," he told MPs.

"There would have been a sense of life and energy returning to an otherwise dormant part of the street, but the only excuse that the National Park planning authority could come up with was that the application was outside "policy". Surely, in such circumstances the answer is to change the policy.

"If we want towns such as Tenby to be regenerated, if we want economic activity and if we want people to be encouraged to go into town in the quieter winter months, organisations such as National Park have to be flexible.

"Their policies must reflect today's economic climate and they must point in the direction of the restoration of prosperity rather than getting too hung up on outdated planning issues."