A Tenby councillor has urged the town council to continue to give their support to the De Valence Trust, as it's in the community's best interests.

Clr. Mike Thorne, who recently quit as the Trust's chairman, made a statement at Tuesday night's meeting of the council, following discussions at the previous meeting on the possibility of giving the Trust an advancement of a three-month loan of grant and rent to help the venue overcome its cash flow problems.

"I want to make a statement on the minutes regarding the De Valence Trust, to counter-balance some of the dismal negativity of these minutes. However, cognisant as I am of the 'Code of Conduct' for councillors, I am not going to give opinions on how the financial future of the Trust should be handled. I intend merely to give some facts of history, which may be news to some members of council, particularly the newer members," explained Clr. Thorne.

Firstly, he referred to a comment made at the previous meeting that the grant of £35,000 was a large sum of money and a large proportion of the council's budget.

"I agree that it is, and of course this council needs to take care when it comes to public expenditure, and needs to ensure value for money. But in the last year of running the De Valence before handing over to the Trust, the council lost nearly £70,000 of public money.

"That's double the grant it then gave the Trust for the first year of operation, and there was an immediate saving to the public purse of £35,000. I leave it to you to decide whether that was value for money," he said.

Clr. Thorne also explained that he had great sympathy with the Trust on securing grants from other bodies, but that it had not been for want of trying.

"It was said at the last meeting that other businesses in the town weren't getting an injection of cash like the De Valence was. That is also true, but this is not like other businesses in the town, it is a not-for-profit charity, it only exists to serve the community, and it generates money for other businesses in this town.

"To summarise, the creation and support of the De Valence Trust over the last five years has been in this council's interest, and in this community's interest, and in the public interest," he added.

In response, Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, told Clr. Thorne that she appreciated where he was coming from, but that the council still hadn't seen enough figures from the Trust on what was being spent on the venue.

Clr. Mrs. Julie Evans felt that discussions on the financial matters of the Trust warranted a separate meeting.

"I feel that the council still hasn't had enough information on the finances of the Trust, we need to see balance sheets, or we won't be able to offer our help any further. We can't keep giving unconditional grants to the Trust," she stated.

"A separate meeting may be the only way forward, we've got to study these figures," concurred Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas.

Councillors agreed to hold a further separate meeting to discuss matters of the Trust. They also decided that two councillors should should sit on the De Valence board of trustees as 'ex officio' members, to fill the space left following the recent resignation of Clr. Mrs. Trisha Putwain from the De Valence board of trustees.

The Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Lane, and her deputy, Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter, were elected to be put forward as the council representatives on the board.