WORK is underway to turn Richmond’s tourist information centre building into a cafe, after months of wrangling about its future.

Barrie Proctor, who runs a number of ice cream outlets around the town, has been running the centre out of his own pocket for more than two months after Richmondshire District Council withdrew financial support for the TIC due to budget cuts.

After a long, and sometimes controversial, planning battle, which saw Mr Proctor back down over plans to put a seating area outside he building, councillors at Richmondshire District Council have given the go-ahead to turn the TIC into a part cafe, part tourist information point.

Mr Proctor said he was pleased that the planning row is now over and that his only intention has ever been to keep the tourist service open for the town.

Figures collected by staff and volunteers at the centre show that more than 16,000 visitors passed through its doors in the last ten weeks.

Mr Proctor said: “We will be doing some work to the building to allow us to create a small cafe area but we will be doing it slowly and carefully so that we don’t start making changes to the building that won’t work.

“We want to keep the centre open but to do that we have to create some revenue - we are paying rent and rates and other outgoings. People seem to think that we’re in this just to make money but our concern has always been to keep a tourist information service in the town.

“Those 16,000 people that came to us for advice or information might have gone on elsewhere if the centre had been closed. We are benefitting businesses, restaurants and cafes around the town.”

Speaking at the planning meeting where councillors passed Mr Proctor’s application, Councillor John Blackie, a member of the planning committee, said: “Given the changes that have been made, I cannot see one reason why this application should be refused. It’s right that we should acknowledge with a debt of gratitude the amount of work that Mr Proctor, his staff and his volunteer team have put in this summer.”