A WARTS-AND-ALL appraisal of Richmondshire's tourism strategy has been dismissed as "an insult" by the local authority.

A team of inspectors from the Audit Commission's Best Value service visited the district this summer to scrutinise what is on offer to visitors.

The district council was quietly confident of a positive report.

Its service had already been hailed as an example of best practice by the Yorkshire Tourist Board, while a revamp of tourist information centres had helped generate a 40 per cent increase in inquiries.

However, an interim report on the inspectors' findings, published in September, included a number of criticisms.

Despite a frosty response from the council, prompting a promise of a review of the report, the final document proved a bombshell when it was presented to leisure chiefs on Tuesday night.

They were told Richmondshire had been rated as no better than "fair" and, even worse, the report said it was "unlikely to improve" unless a number of recommendations by the Best Value service were followed through.

Councillor James Kendall said the report was "an insult" to staff from the tourism department.

Councillor Paul Cullen said the section on Richmond town was "not worth the paper it is written on".

Council leader John Blackie said: "We have a lot of support from local people in the tourism industry.''

The committee recorded its dissatisfaction with a vote.

However, a written statement issued yesterday on behalf of the Audit Commission's Darra Singh read: "While the council has displayed a commitment to best value, there are also weaknesses in its approach to reviewing the tourism service."