Tenby's De Valence Pavilion comes under the spotlight today (Tuesday), as the venue's licence is reviewed by Pembrokeshire County Council's licensing sub-committee.

Allegations of on-street drug dealing, fighting, swearing, smoking, litter and noise outside the venue have been made in a call for a review of the community entertainment centre's premises licence.

The review application has been jointly made by Graham Fry, who owns the Royal Lion Hotel opposite the De Valence, and Ben Fecci, who lives next door.

In their submission they said that they were suffering as a result of noise from the premises which sometimes went on into the early hours, as well as anti-social behaviour and ‘what we believe to be drug dealing’.

Disturbances on the night of February 20th led Mr Fecci to leave his home with his young family to stay with his parents.

“Earlier, there were between 50 and 100 people on the street, with no order and no door staff monitoring,” the complaint went on.

Later in the evening, the situation on Upper Frog Street was likened to ‘a riot’, with ‘a sweet smell of drugs in the air’ and abusive behaviour by youngsters.

Mr Fry says he was forced to stand at the door of his property to prevent people from gaining access.

The request for review has called for a number of conditions, including a reduction in the De Valence hours to midnight, a noise limiter on the building and more control on queuing and the area outside the venue.

The application to review the premises licence was read out at last week's meeting of Tenby town council after members were informed by the county council that it had been received.

Deputy mayor, Councillor Julie Evans, commented:

“We need to note our concerns about the activities taking place outside the premises, but we need to leave it to the licensing committee to decide on the licensing hours.”