THE CHAIRMAN of Penarth Arts and Crafts Limited (PACL) has said that Penarth Pier Pavilion is very much “alive and moving forwards,” clarifying recent “false information” surrounding its future.

The Pavilion, which is run by PACL, reduced its opening hours in March this year to four days a week as well as closing its highly popular cinema, leading to speculation by some over its continuing viability.

But Professor Tony Hazell says the project has merely had to adapt to maintain a sustainable business model - one that will ensure the Pavilion continues to provide a service to the community.

“As a charity, we have a duty to act responsibly,” said Professor Hazell. “We’re looking into strategies to make the pavilion - and the cinema - into a proper community facility that we can justify financially in the long term.

“The grant that we have received from the Heritage Lottery Fund is there to help us develop a more sustainable business model. We need to achieve that balance of making the venue more profitable, whilst continuing to ensure we provide a good value service to the community.”

Addressing a recent suggestion that the Pavilion could be set to resume its previous opening hours, Professor Hazell said that although the evidence collected indicated that seven-day operations were not sustainable in the long term, it was something they planned to review during the summer months.

“The figures we had suggested the café was not economically viable in the winter and spring, likewise with the cinema during summer,” said the Professor. “But it was always our intention to look to increase opening hours over the summer and in the school holidays, as we did in the recent half-term week.

“It’s not ‘caving in’ - it’s what we’ve wanted to do from the beginning. We look at the information we have and the board of trustees makes a decision based on that.”

Whilst not currently open to the public between Monday and Wednesday, the building is used six days a week to host events and classes. Professor Hazell said that better communication with the community about activities in the Pavilion was an area in which PACL needed to look to improve.

“We need to communicate more effectively about what the Pavilion is,” he said. “It’s not an art gallery, it’s not a private cafe. We need to make people aware of that. We have events going on here all the time. When people come here to visit they often ask what the situation is and 99 per cent understand the situation - it’s very positive.

“We’re alive, we’re open whenever we can be and we’re moving forwards. We have a great story to tell here, we just haven’t had the time or the facilities to tell it and we intend to change that.”