Lincolnshire Voice

North Kesteven District Council look set to close Sleafords Tourist Information Centre in Money's yard in a cost cutting exercise. The "executive board" say that by closing this centre and replacing it with local access points and an improved website, it will save £40,000 per year.

As with Lincoln City and now Sleaford it looks like there soon wont be any Tourist Information Centres left in Lincolnshire.

Tourist Information Centres are invaluable to people visiting the area for the first time and if they want to find out about cinema, shows, pubs and local attractions it is one of the first ports of call. By taking this away, new visitors unfamiliar with the area then have to seek out a local access point with information, which will not be as effective as a Tourist Information Centre, so the local attractions will lose trade. If they lose trade, the local council loses tax revenue etc.

According to the Sleaford Standard, the tourism industry supports over 1,400 jobs locally, while attractions draw over 1.92 million visitors a year generating over £74.5 million in revenue.

The above figures make the saving of £40,000 and the inconvenience of losing this valuable service seem insignificant.