Is the Tourist Information Centre to move?

Welcome O Tourists!Here is another story about budgets. Our friendly, well-located Tourist Information Centre - note the word “centre” - may be booted out from its shop front overlooking the market square and shoe-horned back into the World of James Herriot. The District Council owns the building which houses the TIC and other non-commercial activities, but the Men in Grey Suits want to sell it, hence the question mark over the TIC’s future home. TICs have a nation-wide reputation for having that local know-how that makes life so much easier for visitors. I recently rang the one in Duham. “There’s a café in, I think, a department store, and it has a good view out over the river,” I explained. “That’ll be British Home Stores” said the well-informed gentleman in Durham. No one doubts the value and quality of the “small but perfectly formed” unit in Thirsk, and anyone arriving in the centre cannot fail to see the friendly sign swinging away. Do we want another bookies or knick-knack store, or a duplicate of something else we already have? Do we want yet another sign attached to a long-suffering lamp-post pointing to somewhere round the bend and out of sight? Let’s not forget that last year the TIC also sold something like £10,000 of charity Christmas cards, so they are doing useful things even when the tourists aren’t touring. If you want to have your say, there is a public meeting at Rural Arts next Tuesday at 6.30pm. If you’re not sure where that is, just ask at the TIC…


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