When Haverfordwest's traditional May Fair moves onto St Thomas's Green for the 168th time this week it may well be the last to be held there.

Pembrokeshire County Council has served notice on the town's two annual fairs - the other is Portfield Fair, traditionally opening on October 5th - that their days on the green are over.

The authority plans to build a £6m new sports centre on the site of the old County Offices and its ancillary buildings along Winch Lane, and to redesign and landscape the parking area on the green.

Chairman of the Showmen's Guild of South Wales and Northern Ireland, Mike Boswell, whose family have been bringing fairs to Haverfordwest for over a century, said: "We are very disappointed that the county council is planning to move us off the green, and we hope it doesn't happen. Many of the older showmen's families are very upset about it.

"We have made several requests to the county council to meet us, but they keep referring us to Roger Barrett Evans who does not seem to want to discuss it. We are going round in circles."

Mr Boswell said the May Fair is going to be officially opened for the first time on May 5th in the same way as Portfield Fair has been for years.

"At Hereford and Neath and many other towns, the councils have installed moveable street furniture to enable the fairs to continue on their traditional grounds, but Pembrokeshire County Council don't want us on the green," he said. "There is still room for a small fair on the Rifleman end."

Town councillor Don Twigg, who is campaigning to keep the fairs, said: "I remember the big fairs just after the war, and it will be a pity if the fairs are moved off the green altogether. There will surely still be room there to keep the tradition going."

Town mayor, Councillor Alan Buckfield, is planning an exhibition of old photographs of the fairs to highlight its tradition.