Local councillors have claimed that the decision to form a new trust to run the De Valence Pavilion is in the best interests of Tenby, despite the Mayor commenting that the decision is a "step backwards."

At a recent meeting of Tenby Town Council, members voted in favour of setting up a new trust to run the facility in Upper Frog Street, while discussions over its future continued.

Since the pavilion reverted back into town council ownership following the liquidation of the De Valence Trust in May of last year, members of the council have been considering options for the building, with national pub chain J. D. Wetherspoon showing an interest in purchasing the building and the owners of local aquarium, Silent World, enquiring about leasing the facility.

In a bid to try and offset some of the running costs to help reduce the tax burden on the ratepayers of the town, and to provide a facility for community use, members agreed to re-open the building for hire, as of today (Friday), and decided that the most effective way for this to be done would be through setting up a new trust.

At Tuesday night's meeting of the council, however, when discussing the minutes of the meeting that took place to set up the trust, Mayor, Clr. Mrs, Julie Evans, claimed that the notes from that seemed to raise more questions than answers about the cost of re-opening the building.

"How is this council going to fund things that need to be done before the building can even re-open? she queried "Are we going to incur extra costs for things like lighting and heating if we are going to offer the building to certain organisations in the community for less?

"We made the decision as a council to close the building, as we felt it would be cheaper for the ratepayer to do this. If you feel that you can break even by forming the new trust, then fine, but I hope it's not going to cost the ratepayer any more, as I don't think the people of Tenby will stand for that," added the Mayor.

Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane felt it would be wrong not to allow schools and charity organisations to make use of the facility if they could let them.

"We are trying to do something with the building to help the community; it would be criminal not to let schools and charities hire it at a lower rate.

"We are not talking about hiring it out for something every week, everything will be taken on its own individual merit, we might not get a booking during the whole 12 months. We are just trying to be proactive in making use of the building for the community," she said.

Clr. Mike Evans pointed out that by setting up the trust, the the town council would already save £16,000 in liability costs and rates.

"By the next meeting of this council, we would have lost another £500 on the building. It makes sense to do this, while we look to market the building for the future and review the matter in nine or 12 months time.

"None of us around this table has a vision for the De Valence beyond this 12 months and Tenby still needs a vision for the future of the building," said Clr. Evans, who added that the news had been received positively locally, with a large amount of people coming up to him since seeing in the press that the building would re-open for hire, saying that they were delighted with the news.

"Tenby Arts Festival, Tenby Blues Festival, Tenby Round Table, the Iron Man Wales event organisers, they have all come forward to say that they are delighted that the De Valence is now an option again for them.

"The high priority of this town council is to look after the town's residents and the prosperity of Tenby. If we can do something in the short-term to benefit those two things, then we should," he added.

Clr. Lawrence Blackhall, who said that the decision to re-open the building would have both economic and social benefits, suggested that the trust hold a further meeting in the next few days to elect a chairman.