A meeting has been called between the leaders of Dartmouth Tourist Information Centre, the Business Forum, the Business Improvement District and the town council, following criticism of ’secret meetings’.

The Business Forum claimed secret meetings had been held between the Business Improvement District and the TIC which were not in the best interests of the town. The forum said excluding it from negotiations was unwise and placed town council funding for the TIC at risk.

But TIC director and district councillor Hilary Bast­one said: ‘This is another case of forum chairman Paul Reach on a mission of self-importance.’

And mayor Cllr Rob Lyon said Mr Reach had been present at ‘most if not all’ of the meetings he had been to so far and he had a lengthy telephone conversation last week with him when they ‘went through all of the options’ for the future of a Dartmouth TIC if not a visitor centre.

Mr Reach said the business forum committee had discussed current negotiations between the TIC and the BID regarding future financial support at a meeting on Monday night.

In a newsletter posted on the forum website the following day, he said: ‘In view of the importance of the TIC to the future of Dartmouth as a tourist destination, we concluded that the exclusion of the business forum and the town council from those discussions was unwise and, in addition, places the town council’s offer of financial support to the TIC at risk.

‘The expertise available within the forum committee, including two ex-directors of the TIC, leads the forum to believe it can make a valuable contribution to the discussions. There has been a very positive response to the proposals made in our earlier newsletter.

‘We are also concerned that the TIC has ignored the conditions attached to the financial support offered by the council at its January meeting. The business forum therefore believe that the forum and the town council must be involved in all discussions about the future of the TIC.’

The council resolved to:

* A: fully support a tourism service for Dartmouth but acknowledges that it cannot continue to operate at a loss;

* B: to encourage the formation of a working party to investigate what is required for the provision of a tourism service... consisting of equal numbers of members from the town council, BID, Business Forum and TIC directors, all to fully participate in this; and

* C: to make available £3,000 in 2016/2017 to support the provision of a tourism service only, this dependent entirely on motion B above taking place and subject to the findings of the working party.

The meeting between the four groups is set to go ahead next Tuesday.