RYEDALE MP Anne McIntosh is backing calls to relocate Pickering’s Tourist Information Centre (TIC) to the town’s library to safeguard the future of both facilities.

Earlier this month, Ryedale District Council voted to shut Pickering TIC from September and replace it with information services at the library and possibly a visitor information point (VIP) at a local business.

Miss McIntosh, who visited the town last week with Councillor Linda Cowling, leader of Ryedale District Council, Ena Dent, the chairman of Tourism Association North Yorkshire, and Lorraine Dale, the organisation’s secretary, said the library was a perfect location as an alternative site for the TIC.

She said: “Local opinion is running very high at the possible loss of the TIC. I shall be contacting North Yorkshire County Council to seek support for a stand to be placed in the library to provide information and help to Ryedale’s many thousands of tourists.”

Mrs Dent said: “The TIC should not be there to make a profit but to benefit the very valuable tourism industry we have in Ryedale.

“We are now looking to lobby the county council to have the TIC located in the library, which would in turn help the library to be sustainable.

“It is a very valuable asset not only to Pickering but to the whole of Ryedale, providing information and help to tourists who come here from all parts of the country and abroad. The library is in the heart of the town centre and easily found by visitors.”

Coun Cowling said when the county council had decided to consult on the future of Pickering library, it had seen an opportunity to make the library more sustainable, to relocate the TIC and to concentrate resources on delivering a more relevant service to the tourism industry.

She said: “It isn’t just about saving money, rather about using resources to deliver a relevant service to the tourism industry in Ryedale, hopefully the county council will be willing to work with us to achieve that and to secure the future of the library.”

However, Councillor William Oxley, a member of Pickering Town Council and chairman of the Rural Tourism Advisory Board, said the move was not saving anything.

“I am appalled that neither Ryedale Tourism Advisory Board nor Welcome2Pickering, the town’s business group, have been consulted. A presence is needed but after proper discussion with interested parties,” he said.