THE mayor of Launceston has received assurances that the town’s St John Ambulance hall will remain for the community, should the first aid charity wish to leave the site in the future.

At the town council meeting last week, mayor Cllr Brian Hogan said he received a verbal agreement at a recent meeting between himself, St John Ambulance representatives, and one of the lay trustees of the hall.

He said:?“One of the questions I asked was that I wanted to ensure St John Ambulance Hall remained the property of Launceston and at this meeting they did agree to that.”

Cllr Hogan said a draft proposal is being drawn up ‘whereby the town mayor and corporate body of the town council will be one party and the corporate body of St John the other party’.

Cllr Hogan added: “They will form the basis of trustees for St John Ambulance Hall.

“I look forward to receiving a definite proposal between the mayor and the town council and obviously St John.”

The Post has previously reported on concerns from former town mayor, Cllr Dave Gordon, who told fellow town councillors earlier this year that lay trustees were concerned that there was ‘a clear and significant risk’ the St hall on Westgate Street would be sold.

At the time a spokesman for St John Ambulance said there was no intention of doing so.

Also at the time, Cllr Gordon explained the original conveyance from 1935 states that the hall should be run by 12 trustees, all of whom must live in Launceston, nine of whom must represent St John while the remaining three are lay trustees, one of them being the role of the town mayor. But Cllr Gordon told councillors there was only one serving St John trustee.