A public meeting is being held in Saundersfoot next week to discuss Pembrokeshire County Council's proposals to sell the village's Barbecue building. The meeting is being held at the Regency Hall on Monday, for anyone who is interested to hear all the facts regarding its potential sale. Some years ago PLANED hosted a 'visioning' weekend at the Regency Hall which was attended by a large number of local people. The idea was to get an idea of how people saw the future of the village and top priority was the retaining of the Barbecue, which was, of course, the old coal office, as an heritage centre with a view to preserving the industrial history of the area. "Rightly or wrongly, most people believed that this would ultimately happen, but now it seems that the council have other ideas in selling it on the open market," said Tessa Pearson, events secretary of Saundersfoot Historical Society, whose members are concerned about the future of the building. "Our industrial history is very important and it is vital that we have a museum or centre where it can be shown to the public and visitors who, in our experience, are fascinated when they are told how many coal mines were in operation as recently as l930s; also the fact there there was actually a railway along the Strand etc. "Please, if you care what happens to the Barbecue, come along next Monday evening and support us." The meeting is being organised by the village's community council and Mr. Roger Barrett-Evans, Pembrokeshire County Council's director of development, will be in attendance. Community council member and Saundersfoot's representative on the local authority, Clr. Mrs. Rosemary Hayes, will give a brief background to the matter, before handing over to Mr. Barrett-Evans. This will be followed by questions from the floor. "We feel badly let down by the county council," Clr. Mrs. Hayes told the Observer. "They promised it to us and we wanted to use it as a museum, but as soon as they did, they back-tracked on it." Monday's meeting begins at 7 pm.
DIRECTOR RESPONDS
After being contacted by the Observer, Mr. Barrett-Evans, has responded to local community concerns about the authority's intention to put the Barbecue building on the open market. Stressing that he was anxious to clarify the matter and put the record straight, Mr. Barrett-Evans acknowledged that the property had long been an issue. He explained: "The former District Council prepared a number of detailed proposals which failed to materialise for a number of reasons. "It mainly came down to the difficulty of finding an economic solution likely to achieve planning consent given the listing of the building and the sensitive location within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. "Subsequently we agreed to assist the community council to examine the capital costs and ongoing business case for its scheme to take over the building from the county council and operate it as a community and local history facility. "This authority helped the community council to prepare instructions for a study and to finance it - with full community council involvement at all stages. "Our view was that if a viable scheme could be demonstrated, we would dispose of the building to the community council. "The feasibility study, however, could not have been clearer. The amount of capital the community council was prepared to invest was insufficient for the works needed and the prospect for achieving grant aid not good. "Additionally, the ongoing revenue costs would be a continuing burden on the community council - in fact more than they had indicated they were willing to take on. "Faced with this clear and independent assessment, Pembrokeshire County Council's view was that in saving the community council ongoing financial burdens, the report itself was a worthwhile investment. "The county council's understanding that it would assist the community to achieve a viable project was not therefore met." Mr. Barrett-Evans, however, was adamant that the county council had never refused to sell the property to the community council, the Harbour Commissioners or any other local body. He said the council's cabinet had, as part of its ongoing review of all its property holdings, decided on July 5 to dispose of the building on the open market - the proceeds to help finance provision of a new Tourist Information Centre. The director added: "It is still open for the community council to make such an offer. Frankly we have bent over backwards to help the community council, but the ball is now - and has been for some time - firmly in its court."