THE heat is rising following a chef’s damning verdict on the kitchen at an historic public building in Peebles.

The town’s Burgh Hall is used for concerts, social gatherings, coffee mornings and, occasionally, wedding parties.

A wedding event staged there recently left a chef “dismayed” that there was only a domestic kitchen available to use.

The chef deemed the kitchen “entirely unsuited” to catering for up to 100 people and was forced to bring in his own equipment to feed the folks in attendance.

At a meeting of the Chambers Institution Trust on Wednesday the implications of the criticisms were discussed.

The Trust had given the go-ahead for a recent refurbishment of the kitchen after consultation with users of the hall – with a domestic rather than commercial kitchen installed.

Now the Trust is seeking a consultation with Live Borders, which manages the building, to clarify demand for large wedding events at the Burgh Hall – and to gauge whether a kitchen upgrade is necessary.

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The committee chair, Tweeddale East councillor Robin Tatler, said: “Do you think we should be looking at the kitchen again from the point of view of making it a commercial kitchen rather than a domestic kitchen, which was the feedback we got from the people who use the hall.”

Tweeddale West councillor Drummond Begg said: “There is a brand new kitchen in and I would have concerns at tearing out a brand new kitchen, unless there were very good reasons for doing so.”

Tweeddale East councillor Douglas Marshall said: “From my own experience over the years of the Burgh Hall, it has mainly been for coffee mornings and the odd event in the evening. It’s not been full-scale commercial banqueting as such, so I think a normal domestic kitchen would suffice most of the time and if there was an exception, or an event on, then outside caterers would probably have their own equipment they could bring in anyway, so I don’t think we need refurbish it any more.”

Tweeddale East councillor Julie Pirone added: “What is the future use of the building and what is it going to be because if you wanted to get married there is that kitchen fit for doing that? I think the problem is if any outside caterer had to bring in their own equipment then the cost to the individual having the wedding party would probably increase significantly and that would rule it out as a venue, so it’s tied up in what do we want to use the Burgh Hall for and what is the future of it.”

Tweeddale West councillor Eric Small: “When we agreed the kitchen I don’t think we were looking at the commercial side of it. It was just the case of replacing a kitchen. Now in hindsight maybe it’s something we should have done but it was just a case of getting a kitchen up an running as soon as possible.”