When Jane Hutt, Welsh Assembly health minister, made her £4 million announcement on the new Tenby Hospital to community representatives last Thursday evening, she made it clear that the Local Health Board and the Pembrokeshire NHS Trust had to work closer with the people of Tenby to make the new facility something to be proud of.

As exclusively revealed by the Observer, the minister has given the go-ahead for a new form of community hospital providing the best possible care for the people of the area.

The facility at the former Transco site at Gas Lane, will include care services with social services, x-ray, minor injuries unit and integrated day therapy, while 10 beds will be provided at a local nursing home.

Following the meeting, Christine Gwyther AM told us: "Representatives present at the meeting outlined their concerns at the way in which the Trust and the new Local Health Board had ridden roughshod over the local community.

"Jane Hutt assured us that that would not happen again, and that the decision making on the new facility would be shared between health professionals and the community - right from the word go.

"She had brought along the most senior health official in Wales - Ann Lloyd, to make sure the local Trust and Health Board understood that they would have to change as a condition of the £4 million grant.

"On the beds issue, we made it quite clear that we were disappointed not to have beds on-site at the new facility, but welcomed the concessions made:

• That the 10 beds would be additional, and would be provided in one unit and not scattered around in different nursing homes.

• That a senior NHS member of staff would be present at the unit to oversee it and to act as a proper link between the health service and the independent provider, and

• That the community would be involved all the way in the project - this would be a community owned facility and independent providers would have to respect that and make the community welcome."

She also told us: "I have been involved in this campaign for five years; but there are some campaigners who have been working tirelessly for decades and I cannot praise them highly enough for their achievement. There were some very dark times when we thought there would be no hospital at all, but this £4 million will provide a good facility as a testament to those volunteers who never gave up. I know it is always dangerous to name individuals in case you miss someone out, but on this occasion I want to put on record my personal gratitude to Pat Wright, Caroline Thomas, Mike Williams, Roy Haggar, Nanette Lewis-Head and Mollie Neate. They have all been magnificent and are all prepared to carry on working for the people of Tenby to get the new facility right."

As far as the way forward is concerned, an implementation group will be set up to take the project forward consisting of, as a first step, the people who were present at Thursday's meeting. The meeting will take place in the second week of January and will be in the Mayor's Parlour to cement community involvement at the very outset.