A proposal setting out a vision to turn a Tenby facility into a hub for the community has been welcomed by local councillors.

Correspondence from Tenby Civic Society which came before members of Tenby Town Council at their meeting on Tuesday night, put forward interest for alternative management, uses and funding of the old Greenhill Grammar School site, which is currently in Pembrokeshire County Council ownership, housing Tenby Library, the Community Learning Centre, Youth Centre and Avenue Day Centre.

The document presented to the town council and written by civic society chairman David Tudor Thomas sets out proposals on how the site might be developed as a hub for Tenby community activities under the management and/or ownership of a management charity in a form to be agreed.

“Various forms of community involvement have already been put forward in the public meeting on library service future,” wrote Mr. Thomas.

“It is proposed that greater benefits would accrue not only to Tenby, its residents and visitors, but equally to Pembrokeshire County Council if the services on the site were viewed as a whole and that a devolution of responsibilities could then provide both significant cost savings to be used elsewhere and also a more economically viable model for the delivery of such services elsewhere in the county in the light of present and forthcoming budgetary pressures,” he continued.

The document puts forward ideas on how the proposals should be publicised, with opinions gathered from all sections of the Tenby community and how they might be analysed and taken forward by a preliminary ‘steering committee’.

Commenting on the document, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas said she felt it was a very intelligent report with lots of good ideas.

“It’s up for discussion now on who would carry these proposals forward, it would have to be a trust as such, to be able to access any grant funding available,” she said.

Clr. Dr. Peter easy told members that he believed that the document was due to be presented to the Tenby Development Trust next week for discussion, so maybe there was a route forward there.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall said that he felt that the report contained some very good ideas that were worth consideration, however, he felt the need to point out some slight inaccuracies.

“Firstly, it is mentioned that the De Valence facility is ‘struggling’ - we are not struggling, the building is more successful now than it has been in a long time, so maybe this is a misinterpretation,” he commented.

“Also, there is reference to Greenhill pupils causing unruly behaviour in the town during their lunch hours. I’ve not heard anything on that and have seen no evidence of this,” added Clr. Blackhall.

Deputy Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane proposed that the town council wrote back to the Civic Society in support of the proposals in principal.