A town councillor has criticised her own chamber for electing to take a matter on the De Valence Pavilion into private discussion.

At Tuesday night's meeting of Tenby Town Council, Clr. Mrs. Julie Evans said she couldn't understand why a matter relating to offering the new De Valence Trust a £5,000 interest-free start-up loan, was taken into private to be debated at the previous meeting of the council.

"It's so important that these matters are out in the open, we are trusted with public funds and the proposal should have been discussed in public," she said.

"Anyone who wants to take an agenda matter into private should clearly state a reason why, and a clear explanation certainly wasn't given on this occasion," she stressed.

The town clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, explained that he had no knowledge of what Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane's proposals were when she asked to take the matter into private at the previous meeting, other than that they were of a 'financial' nature.

Councillors voted in favour of offering the Trust a £5,000 interest-free start-up loan, repayable within six months, to enable them to meet the legal financial requirements to apply for charity status.

"The content of Clr. Mrs. Lane's proposal was not known when members agreed to take the agenda item into private, but there was no reason to have not discussed the matter in public," explained Mr. Davies.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter stated that the town council had given interest-free loans to other organisations in the past and had discussed the matters in private.

Meanwhile, on further matters relating to the De Valence building, the town clerk revealed that the venue's heating system had developed a problem, with the boiler failing again.

Clr. Mrs. Evans claimed that this simply highlighted the problems concerning the poor condition of the building.

"We were previously told that it would cost in excess of £150,000 to have a new heating system installed, so bearing this in mind when going into budget discussions very soon, we seriously have to be sensible about what our future options are regarding the De Valence.

"We don't want public funds being haemorrhaged just to put on a handful of events a year at the venue," added Clr. Mrs. Evans.