DARTMOUTH Tourist Inform­ation Centre launched its 2016 brochure on Wednesday with a vision for the future.

Directors said restructuring of staffing levels had taken place in an effort to cut costs but more investment was needed if the award-winning centre was to survive.

And an appeal was made for more volunteers to try to help fill the gap left by the departure of manager Lesley Turner, who had been made redundant.

Director Nigel Way said expenditure had remained remarkably consistent over the years but the centre had been let down by its turnover.

‘Staffing is a cost and we are addressing that,’ he said. ‘Subscriptions this year are down to around £81,000. It needs more investment.

‘We are a very fragile model. However, after this hiatus I believe that something better might arise from the ashes.’

Director Hilary Bastone said: ‘We are a stand alone TIC and have struggled in recent years to try to keep it going and we come to this point now where we are having to re-evaluate what we are doing and we would like to keep the website, the brochure and the centre. The website needs investment, the brochure is fine but the centre is our biggest expense and the area that is costing us money.

‘But there are those who want to pick bits and pieces off us without contributing to the TIC.

‘There are one or two who have their eyes on our website but it is a website that the TIC produced and has built over the years.

‘It is the number one website for Dartmouth and we want to hold on to that if we can but we do need some investment.’

Financial discussions with other agencies, including the BID, are still under review, the meeting was told.

TIC chairman Angie Cairns-Sharp said there was little more the TIC could now do to cut costs and she urged the town to get behind the centre.

‘We have got everything down to the bare bones,’ she said.