The owners of a controversial car park in Tenby have vowed to try and rectify problems with the facility's ticketing system, after the town received a backlash of bad publicity from motorists who believe that they have been wrongly fined in the post.

Rev. Robb Wainwright, of the Rectory Car Park, spoke to members of Tenby Town Council ahead of their meeting on Tuesday after the council had received a number of complaints wrongly aimed at them.

The car park which Tenby county councillor Mike Evans labelled an "absolute scandal" at a Pembrokeshire Coast National Park meeting this week, has also led Pembrokeshire County Council to issue a statement in recent weeks, pointing out that it has no connection with the authority, after angry motorists were directing complaints to the Authority.

Correspondence from one motorist to the town council, who said they had been a regular visitor to Tenby for over 40 years, explained that they had recently received a penalty notice from Highview Parking Ltd, who are operating the car park, with the tone of the letter said to be "menacing and unreasonable."

The author of the letter said that the car park was now being highlighted on the internet as a 'scam' car park due to the number of issues that were being raised there. The correspondence also stated that Wales Tourist Board and Pembrokeshire County Council had also been written to on the matter.

Addressing the grievance, Rev. Wainwright said that on investigation, it seemed that the person in question had simply entered their car registration wrongly, and the camera system wouldn't recognise this as an error.

"They alleged that they had paid for the parking, and that he had been scammed, but they simply didn't enter their car registration correctly, as a lot of people seem to have done," Rev Wainwright told the meeting.

"The automated system can cope with one character wrong, but if you miss something out or add something in it can't.

"The letter sent out is not threatening either. It is no different to those parking notices issued by Pembrokeshire County Council's enforcement officers

"Nearly 48 per cent of fines issued have been cancelled on appeal, and as the owners of the Rectory Car Park, we have pursued any complaints and sought to investigate them where we think any fines have been issued incorrectly.

"The church is very aware of the problems with a number of the paying machines not working, as well, and we are seeking to sort it out.

"Next week there is remedial action on the current system, which is solar-powered, which we hope to replace with mains power," continued Rev Wainwright.

Clr. Trevor Hallett said that the car park had created a lot of bad publicity for Tenby, and that it was up to the church to rectify it.

"We don't want to bring our car park into disrepute, or Tenby into disrepute, so we are working hard to get new machines in and hopefully they will be fitted by the summer," explained Rev Wainwright.

"I don't understand though the bad mouthing of Tenby on social media sites and in the press, with people stating that they wouldn't come back to the town simply because they had a bad experience at the Rectory car park. That logic defeats me!"

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter asked, in hindsight, did the car park owners not think that it would have been better to have left the situation as it was with 'man power' employed to collect the parking fees from the ticket booth, as it was running perfectly, and they were very helpful, interacting with visitors.

Rev. Wainwright said that one thing the new system had done was alleviate the build up of traffic in that area, as there were no queues of cars waiting to get into the car park, as all motorists had to do was drive straight in and find a space.

"Traffic is more free flowing around that corner of Tenby now," he said.

Rev. Wainwright said it was marginally cheaper to run the machines, when Clr. Will Rossiter questioned if it was more cost effective to employ the men on the ticket booth.

"Wouldn't it have been more charitable of the church to keep employing those men instead!" Clr. Rossiter remarked.

"A 74-year-old man used to regularly carry the cash from the car park to their home in a cloth bag at the end of a day, when there could be up to £4,000 taken on a Bank Holiday Saturday, which was dangerous as they could have been knocked on the head and robbed!" stated Rev. Wainwright.

"Almost every car park in the county is automated now, and all we can do is educate the public who use the car park, to use the machines we have in place correctly," he added.