Falmouth's mayor says the town council has big plans for Princess Pavilion now it is signed over to them - but there is a lot of work to be done.

Cllr Steve Eva was speaking after the Packet revealed that, after months of legal wrangling, the ownership of the pavilions and Gyllyndune Gardens had finally been transferred from leisure company GLL, who were contracted to run it by Cornwall Council, to the town council.

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He said he was honoured to have signed the documents on Thursday with official takeover last Friday and he was hoping they could get the outside toilets open this week.

"I was honoured to sign the documents which transferred over the Princess Pavilion from Cornwall Council to Falmouth Town Council," he told the Packet.

"I have been up there and it is quite evident there is a lot of work to do which we will do properly."

He said by June 1 they were hoping to open up the cafe, enough to offer teas and coffees and cakes etc.

"We won't be able to do the open straight away," he said. "We have to learn to walk before we can run. It's a case of getting the kitchens up to scratch before we can open properly to the public.

"Over the last 15 months it's deteriorated quite a bit. We were surprised actually how bad it has got. We've had leak in the gent's toilets inside which has obviously been leaking for quite a while through the roof and will have to be repaired. A lot of the equipment, especially the theatre stuff, was left outside and got wet, and we have to have all the upholstery cleaned on all the seats in the theatre.

"It is now a case of getting it up to the standard we want it. It will be run properly by the town council, I feel it hasn't been run properly for the last few years."

He said the venue was a jewel in the town's crown with the first meeting of the working party taking place on Friday to discuss the way forward.

"We taking baby steps," he said. "We need to get the place clean. We've got a lot of plant machinery within the building which needs to be checked properly by engineers and we can't start any of it up until that's done. We might start something up and cause a lot of damage. It's got to be brought on line as it is checked. We've got a full run kitchen but we don't know how it's run, but we have got big plans and hopefully by the end of the summer people will be able to use the facility and they will be pleased that we have taken it over."