NEWPORT Town Council will begin talks with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority about taking over the local visitor centre.

The national park authority agreed to give the town council preferred status to take over the visitor centre at its meeting on Wednesday, March 28.

This will mean the town council will have the first opportunity to take over tourism services at the Long Street building, via a process called Community Asset Transfer (CAT).

The national park has reserved the right to sell the building if no agreement is reached.

Authority members were keen to see the discussions between national park officers and the town council begin.

“Let’s enter into the discussion and see what happens. “I think with a bit of goodwill on both sides we can progress rapidly,” said Cllr Paul Harries.

“I am quite happy with this intention,” said authority member Ted Sangster, adding he was concerned about how the building’s closure might affect the future of services in the area.

“It will mean that for the best part of this season the visitor centre which has previously provided some use to the national park and local community will be closed.”

The park’s director of delivery and discovery, James Parkin, said the danger of opening a service before a business plan was complete was that it might not meet expectation.

It is hoped the discussions with the town council will form the basis of a further report to the authority within six months.

The park authority voted to close the visitor centre in November last year, and proposed selling the building on the open market.

Before doing this it was agreed that the authority should invite local groups to make CAT applications.

Two expressions of interest came back – one from the town council hoping to run tourism services in the building, and a second which was deemed unsuitable which proposed running a private nursery from the premises.