Tourist information centres in other Wiltshire towns are being visited by members of Marlborough town council before setting out their own plans to recreate one themselves.
They are looking at the visitor centres in Amesbury, Calne, Malmesbury and outside the county in Henley before deciding on the structure of replacing Marlborough’s library-based centre closed down by Wiltshire Council in its austerity cuts.
“These centres have a lot of data that we can share,” Councillor Guy Loosmore (pictured) told the town council on Monday. “There are some possible models out there that we can adapt, but we do need to get the structure decided first.”
A report to the council highlighted three potential sites for a visitor centre – the town hall itself, which would need listed building consent, the George Lane car park toilet building and the possibility of a mobile bus, possibly a second hand red bus or coach, as a temporary expedient.
The mayor, Councillor Alexander Kirk Wilson, said that the council was committed to opening its own tourist centre by next May. But Councillor Andrew Ross pointed out that financing the project would be a difficulty if the council’s precept is frozen next year.