'We will not be closing', was the message conveyed to Tenby councillors this week by the chairman of the town's De Valence Trust. Mike Thorne was present at Tuesday night's meeting of the town council to discuss matters relating to the trust's finances. He admitted that the trust did experience poor financial returns in the autumn, with smaller audiences at a number of events than they had hoped for, blaming the snowfall on November 25 on having a severe impact on two evening events, and also leading to the Winter Carnival being cancelled. "That did all impact on our cash-flow position, but we are not a terminal case and we will not be closing," stressed Mr. Thorne, pointing out that they had a full programme of events lined up for the year. However, Mr. Thorne admitted that the trust's present cash-flow position did make it difficult for them to invest in the future programme, and said it would be helpful if the council could facilitate a loan to ease the current problems. Clr. Mike Evans told Mr. Thorne that they were looking forward to the opportunity for representatives of the two parties to meet and go through the accounts and discuss the De Valence Trust's future finances. In the meantime, Clr. Evans proposed a short-term loan for the trust to help with their cash-flow problems, which would be repayable after three months. "As you can see, it's a difficult building to run, but I can say that the De Valence is in a stronger position today than when we handed it over, but there is still a long way to go," remarked Clr. Evans.
