Tenby town councillors have been asked to continue to support the De Valence Trust financially by considering renewing grant funding that they have been providing for the venue.

At a presentation given to members of the town council last week, the De Valence Trust committee members also asked councillors to consider an increase on the three-year grant.

"To be able to make this venue sustainable, your support is vital and I would ask too for an increase in the grant so we can continue to expand our community work," said the Trust's director, Victoria Smathers, who also asked for the two associations to work much more closely together.

"I want to work with you not just because this is ultimately your building and you need to be part of the consultation process, but also because we need to work together on a shared vision for this place.

"Well used and supported village and town halls unite communities and I think we can make this the community heart of Tenby if we work together," she continued.

Victoria also said that the venue had enjoyed amazing success over the summer season, partly because of the marketing input and also because the building had been open four or five nights a week during the period.

"We ran new family wet-weather art and craft activities which were really popular, and the family nights have been really well attended.

"We've broken even on the events which actually we should be really proud of -other theatres receive funding to support the shortfall on programming, as art isn't money-making, so for us to more than cover the costs should be celebrated," she continued.

Victoria told councillors that the venue's weaknesses needed to be addressed so that the Trust could start to take it forward and play to its strengths in full.

"The De Valence is a tired, dated building, with poor overall community support, under-funded, under-staffed, under-resourced - its size and location is both its strength and its weakness - it's too big and inaccessible for some events and ideally located and perfectly sized for other events.

"I think we need to look at the building and concentrate on what Tenby wants for this venue," she explained, stating that the Trust needed to work much more closely with the town council, PAVS, Planed and Pembrokeshire County Council to forge a future for the venue that works with the community needs.

"I believe we need to look at redeveloping the building and I'm already working with Alex Alison and the Pembrokeshire County Council community regeneration team with ideas to create a multi-purpose building that can more effectively service the community, with smaller spaces for the community activities and conference facilities, a more adaptable larger space that can take the small nightout scheme theatre events with an average audience of 70, but also the amazing music events like the Blues Festival with audiences of around 400 with better equipment and better resources.

"Over the next year I want to focus on fund-raising for three key pots - to increase staffing, for programming support and for the building redevelopment," added Victoria.

Following the presentation, the town clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, said that the town council would discuss further over the next month whether or not they would continue providing the De Valence Trust with grant funding, prior to finalising their precept budget in December for the next financial year.

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