TEIGNMOUTH town councillors have thrown their full weight behind efforts to keep the Carlton Theatre open.

At Tuesday evening's meeting of the council's finance and general purposes committee, they recommended that the theatre's tenants, the Teignmouth Players, should be given a long-term lease to qualify them for grants to pay for the building's urgently needed modernisation.

The pledge of support has come in advance of a top-level meeting on Monday at Teignbridge Council, the theatre's owners, at which the Carlton's future will be discussed.

Cllr Geoff Bladon told town councillors that a powerful message needed to be sent to the district authority.

'We should tell Teignbridge that we are utterly opposed to any attempt to demolish or remove the theatre,' he said. 'The idea to knock it down and grass it over is not a good one. We've lost too much already in this town.'

He said that under one option it would cost £150,000 to demolish the theatre and turn the space into a lawn, but that £260,000 was needed to bring the building up to standard.

Cllr Bladon said that as well as a long-term lease, the Teignmouth Players should be given £150,000 to allow them to apply for match funding so that the theatre would 'continue to be an asset to the town and its people'.

The mayor, Cllr Vince Fusco, said that the theatre 'must remain as it is, but modernised and given a face lift'.

He added that the Teignmouth Players were volunteers, and no burden to the ratepayer.

Cllr Sylvia Russell said that the theatre's future had been discussed at a recent regeneration management meeting, and she understood that Howard Davis, Teignbridge Council's chief executive, had met the Teignmouth Players in the last two weeks.

'If the Players do take it on, they will be asked to take on a full repairing lease,' she said. 'They are concerned that they might be relegated to a church hall, but there has to be a decent alternative in the auditorium at the Riviera.'

Cllr Dick Petherick said the problem was that Teignbridge Council 'neither had the money to knock down the Carlton nor to do it up'.

'The Carlton has been neglected for many years and the Teignmouth Players have had to survive on seven-year leases,' he said. 'They have kept the inside magnificently, but the structure has not been maintained by Teignbridge in common with many of their buildings. The Players should be given grants to do up the Carlton.'

Cllr Petherick added that the regeneration committee should meet the wishes of the people of Teignmouth, 'and people want the Players to stay at the Carlton'.

Cllr Roy Phillips said that Teignmouth had always lacked a real community building and any new building on the Carlton site should incorporate the wishes of the Teignmouth Players.

'A decent home should be built for them including a community centre. They've earned that right more than any other organisation in the town,' he said. 'We have nothing compared to Dawlish or Newton Abbot and Teignbridge knows that.'

On Wednesday, town clerk David Tickell wrote to Karen Christie, head of leisure and tourism at Teignbridge, outlining the town council's views.