Tenby councillors have reaffirmed their stance that they don't want to see any cuts made to services at the town's library.

Pembrokeshire County Council are in the process of conducting a review into opening hours of libraries across the county, with councillors in Tenby recently indicating that they weren't in favour of any cuts, but that if there were to be any changes made to the library hours, then they would favour a lunchtime closure at the facility.

At Tuesday night's meeting of the town council, town clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, said that he had received further correspondence from Mike Cavanagh, head of cultural services, who had commented that several town and community councils had asked what the costs would be if they paid the difference to keep library opening times as they were, e.g. as Tenby had proposed to close for an hour at lunchtime, he explained that there would be an option to keep it open for that hour if the town council were prepared to meet the cost.

Clr. Lawrence Blackhall didn't feel that this was a route that they should go down.

"We're happy to look at taking other services on like the town's market and harbour, but I don't believe it's an option that the town council should pick up any cost for this at all, as the people of the town will end up paying twice for the same level of service added to the precept for the town.

"I think we should avoid this kind of communication from the county council, as we could end up receiving similar offers from some of their other departments," he added.

Clr. Mike Evans told members that the Tenby library was an essential facility, not just for the people of the town, but for the district too, as it was used by people from areas such as Penally, St. Mary Out Liberty, St. Florence, New Hedges, and also pupils from a wider spectrum that attended Greenhill School.

"The library is a vital service to the people of Tenby and the wider community, and we're against any reduction in services, but we're also pragmatically looking at the large changes to funding from the Welsh Government that effects the area," commented Clr. Evans.