Tenby’s Tourist Information Centre (TIC) - which is due to close at the end of the month - could reopen next year under the Town Council the facility’s operator Pembrokeshire County Council have revealed.

PCC is currently exploring the possibility with Tenby Town Council of a Community Asset Transfer of the TIC building.

The County Council’s Cabinet will be told at its monthly meeting next Monday (December 2) that the move would allow the TIC to continue as a tourism facility.

The facility was earmarked for closure earlier this year under the County Council’s Service prioritisation exercise saving the Authority £60,000.

To assist in moving towards a cost neutral model, the Council looked to improve revenue streams at the TIC by the introduction of a catering facility.

However, following this pilot the Council’s Catering Service decided it was not financially viable and they did not retain this service beyond the end of October.

Cabinet is asked to allow negotiations to continue with Tenby Town Council to allow the TIC to reopen in 2020.

However, speaking at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane told her fellow members that ‘careful consideration’ was needed on the matter, accusing the county council of trying to ‘palm’ the facilty off on them.

“We have discussed this matter in private relating to the TIC in private, but now PCC have made it public, and it’s out in the open, it concerns me that they are pressurising us into making a decision,” she said.

“The county council seem to be praising themselves in their press release for basically ‘palming off’ the TIC onto us.

“Plus the funding figure mentioned was always £45,000 for the facility to remain open and now they appear to be stating £60,000.

“We have already spoken about the extra costs that the town council has to incur in trying to maintain our gardens, and it is proven now by PCC wanting to close some, so we really need to look carefully at where our money needs to be, and my feeling is - can we really look at this option for the TIC. We definitely need to look at this a little more deeply,” she continued.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall agreed, and said that discussions with PCC needed to be of mutual benefit to both.

“We made a clear decision in private to continue with constructive discussions down the line, so we need to be very careful on this,” he stated.

The town clerk said that a report seeking approval to adopt a revised Community Asset Transfer policy was also due to be discussed at the cabinet meeting on Monday and that he had spoken with the authority’s regeneration manager, Sinead Henehan and she was happy to talk to members of the town council on Property Services and Community Regeneration matters.

“PCC say that it is an ‘asset transfer’ but who for, as it is going to cost us money,” added Clr. Mrs. Lane.