DARTMOUTH Town Coun­cil had invited the cash-strapped tourist information centre to work more closely with it.

It is proposing a major revamp of how Dartmouth looks at tourism in a approach it hopes will build bridges, inject cash support and promote the town for the future.

The award-winning TIC has warned it faces a potential loss of £20,000 this year and without help it will not survive.

The town council on Monday pledged its firm support to the tourism service.

But many councillors also made it clear that no financial help from the public purse should be given unless changes are made to the present TIC operation – and provided the council has more input into how it is run.

The council proposes to set up a working party of representatives from the TIC, the Business Improve­ment District, Business Forum and itself to look at tourism in the town.

The council has already set aside £3,000 in its 2016/17 budget for the TIC, which will now be subject to the findings of the new working group.

Mayor Cllr Rob Lyon told councillors: ‘The TIC is our shop window and front door and as a tourist town is very important to Dartmouth.’

He said he had already met with TIC chairman Angie Cairns-Sharp and BID chairman Peter Conisbee who were keen to work together in organising a better system that would hopefully prove ‘less fractious and open to difficulties’.

Business Forum chairman and BID associate director Paul Reach said the TIC should rethink its business model.

‘They are trying to be a visitor centre, which they are very good at, and market Dart­mouth nationally with methods that are 10 years out of date,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t have the resources to do both.’

But he added the TIC was vital for tourism in Dartmouth and it must not be allowed to fold.

He even suggested the council consider a £20,000 loan to fund the TIC through a season’s restructuring.

Mr Reach said that since 2014 the TIC had benefited from investments of around £80,000 from the BID, which included website input.

But he warned Dartmouth only had three years more left of the BID – which had money but no goodwill – while the TIC had all goodwill but no money.

It would be a pity if we can’t work out a way to benefit both, he said.

Cllr Lyon said the TIC had recently struck an agreement to sell ‘brand Dartmouth’ items but to do this needed to undertake a remodelling of its sales area and window, as well as having the necessary staff to look after the centre.

But Cllr Gina Coles warn­ed the council should not be supporting a commercial operation.

‘You can’t separate the retail side from the other and we will be putting ourselves in danger of doing something illegal if we give any money whatsoever,’ she said.

Cllr Paul Allen said he feared the money would simply be used to redesign the TIC shop window, whereas they had to strip it down and look at the bare bones of the problem and not build on a something that was crumbling.

A lot of businesses in the town are fighting to keep going and there had to be strong conditions attached if the council was to put any money into something with a commercial link, he said.

Cllr David Gent said for the TIC to pin its hopes at this stage on retail was ‘clutching at a lifeboat that was already sinking’.

Cllr Sue Thomson said it was clear the TIC could not continue to operate under its current business model.

Cllr Tony Fyson said he felt a new tourist service was needed for the town but he stressed the need for continuity or ‘a season would be lost’.

Cllr Richard Rendle said that in the past the Dart­mouth TIC had fallen out with other centres and didn’t work with them, but it was time for a more positive collaborative town approach.

He said it was clear the TIC had ‘failed miserably’, however it was important to Dart­mouth and there was now an opportunity for the town and the community to work together.

‘I am a supporter of the TIC but feel strongly we have to be more sensible,’ he said.

‘All this giving money has to stop and we must make a concerted effort to get it right.’

Cllr Francis Hawke said the TIC should have addressed its losses more than four years ago and not waited until it was ‘in the mire’.

The meeting supported his proposals to set up a tourism working party as soon as possible with a view to giving a £3,000 grant towards tourism in the town, depending on its findings. A further proposal to give £3,500 towards the running of the Newcomen Engine House was withdrawn after the meeting was reminded it was the town council’s responsibility anyway.

After the meeting, Mr Reach explained later how the TIC had benefited from around £80,000 worth of investment from the BID, of which £20,000 was direct funding.

He said the Dartmouth branding exercise had cost about £28,000 and produced the Dartmouthevery time. co.uk brand and logo for the town which had only been implemented in the TIC website; the physical website changes, including photography, were about £20,000 direct funding; and the railway platform advertising was about £35,000 and it was aimed purely at directing traffic to the TIC website.