Following criticism received from the Chamber of Trade and Tourism, Tenby's Mayor has reiterated that the town council's decision to close the De Valence Pavilion wasn't taken lightly.

At their meeting on Tuesday night, the council received correspondence from the Chamber Of Trade who wished to express their "dismay" at the decision to close the doors to the venue in Upper Frog Street, after the De Valence Trust announced that they would be entering into voluntary liquidation.

"The town as a whole needs to provide reasons to attract visitors, especially out of the main summer season. Now, in the absence of both the De Valence Trust and the De Valence Pavilion, what action is the town council proposing to attract visitors," wrote the Chamber of Trade's secretary, Elaine Rowe.

"Once again we must express our deep regret and sadness at the loss of such a facility, not only for the community, but for the attraction of visitors and events to our town," she added, calling the situation "wholly inadequate".

Responding the the letter, the Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Julie Evans, said that the town council were once again "extremely regretful" that they had been forced to close the De Valence and that it wasn't a decision that they had taken lightly.

She felt that when councillors had been given the opportunity to explain the concept of local government funding to people, they had taken on board and understood and sympathised with the council's position and the reasons why they had to close the venue after it came back into their hands.

"It would cost the town council a lot of money to keep the hall open beyond the dates we have agreed, and the fact that the Trust was placed into liquidation with such a sudden announcement, meant we had not budgeted to take on such a facility," she said

"The fact of the matter is that people don't realise what a terrible state of disrepair the Trust left the facility in, and with such problems that needed to be addressed at the building, we couldn't guarantee to people that we could put their events on at the venue," she continued.

Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown felt that a public meeting could be called to explain what the situation was once and for all.

"It's unfortunate that people are throwing comments at the the town council, but after the Trust was placed into insolvency we just didn't have the budget to take on bookings at the building," she said.

"We've all had comments thrown at us verbally in the street; maybe a public meeting to explain things would help.

"We didn't pull the rug out from under the Trust's feet. It's been well documented in the press why we had to come to the decision we did, but people don't seem to understand it unless you talk them through it," added Clr. Mrs. Brown.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sandra Williams, also felt that people would understand more if the situation was explained to them.

"A lot of people are upset, but at the same time a lot of people locally didn't support the Trust anyway.

"Maybe some of the members of the Chamber of Trade should come and have a look at the state of the building, as they seem to have got the idea that it's all brand spanking new and fine, so they need to be made to realise that's far from the case," she remarked, with fellow member, Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter, agreeing and stating that most councillors were "disgusted" by the state the Trust had left the venue in.

Clr. David Stock felt that there was no need to hold a public meeting as the council were right in the decision that they had come to.

"Once the situation is explained to people, they agree. We've made the decision now and it's the right decision I feel, so we don't need to enter into a public meeting and get into a slanging match with people. We need to start looking to the future of the De Valence and not look back at the reasons why it was closed," he said.

The Mayor felt that it would be wise to let the six-week period pass whilst the council were continuing to honour bookings into July and once that period had gone by to look to the future for the facility.

"The building is old and out-of-date and we should see this as an opportunity to look to the future and something fit for the 21st century," she said.