A Carmarthenshire County Councillor wants more action to recoup taxpayers’ money which was spent making a historic privately-owned building safe.

Cllr Kevin Madge has been pressing Carmarthenshire Council on what efforts it’s made since spending £81,047 two years ago on Garnant Workmen’s Hall, Garnant.

The council intervened on safety grounds because slates were falling from the roof. One slate reportedly embedded itself in the external wall insulation of a nearby property during a storm. The £81,047 paid for netting plus associated staff costs.

Cllr Madge said in his view it was “unacceptable” the money hadn’t been recovered. The council said it had taken enforcement action and placed a legal charge against the property at point of any future sale to recoup costs.

The hall opened in 1927 and has been a venue for operas, concerts, plays, films and discos. For a while it became a private leisure centre, then a children’s play facility but has been empty for many years.

In 2009 Dyfed-Powys Police discovered around 4,000 cannabis plants being grown in the cellar. Eight years ago the council approved plans to demolish the building and create a care home in its place but the private scheme didn’t materialise.

A Garnant resident told the Local Democracy Reporting Service youngsters breaking into the boarded-up building has been a problem and that there was a fire around a year ago.

The man, who asked not to be named, said the building was now more secure although children sometimes got into the yard at the rear. “The roof is the big issue,” he said. Slates had fallen onto the pavement below, he said, before the netting was put up. “It’s an enormous property and it needs a whole new roof,” he said.

The resident said he would have liked the care home project to have proceeded, or new homes built there. “Anything is better than it is now,” he said.

Two years ago Cllr Madge put forward a motion at a meeting of full council for the hall to be placed in public ownership and saved from ruin but it wasn’t passed. Now the former Labour council leader is calling on the authority to recover its expenditure through the courts. “It is simply unacceptable that over £81,000 of taxpayers’ money remains outstanding,” he said.

“The hall and adjoining shop have effectively been abandoned and are being allowed to rot away.”

Cllr Madge also felt the Plaid Cymru-Independent-run council should direct more investment to the Amman Valley. Pointing to its £40 million-plus refurbishment of the former Debenhams store in Carmarthen, he said his area was “offered small pots of funding”.

A council spokeswoman said it has taken enforcement action against the owners of the workmen’s hall to secure the roof and secure the building from trespass under two relevant pieces of legislation. She said it has also placed a legal charge against any future sale of the asset by the current owners and would continue to seek repayment. Asked if the council had contacted the owners, she said it had.

She added: “The authority continues to monitor the building in the interest of public safety and will keep the case for further action through the courts under review.”

Carmarthenshire’s Plaid Cymru group was also invited to comment.