Weston Town Council has now opened its new Visitor Information Centre in the former shop unit at the front of the Tropicana building.

Not for the first time, the Town Council has had to step in where North Somerset Council (NSC) has withdrawn from a discretionary service. For many years, NSC operated a very popular and well-used Tourist Information Centre in Pier Square, at the heart of the town's tourist area. But cutbacks led that site to be sold off to commercial developers. North Somerset more recently provided a much scaled down version in the Winter Gardens, but this was widely considered to be inadequate. Finally the service was abandoned altogether last year as the council also offloaded the Winter Gardens.

Now Weston Town Council has taken over some of the tourism function, and some think it sits better with the town, as visitors tend to come to the town of Weston-super-Mare rather than the wider district of North Somerset.

Weston Town Councillor Robert Payne has welcomed the new centre, although with some reservations. He said: "It's very important for a town like Weston to provide a good quality information point for our visitors, and I'm really pleased that the Town Council has stepped in to plug the gap. I am hopeful it will be a great service. It is however a little disappointing that a site nearer to the town's tourist hub couldn't be used. If the Tropicana were redeveloped as a major tourist attraction, as we would all like to see, it would be different; but as an occasionally used events space which is a fair walk for many people from the town centre, along with a serious lack of signage, I'm not sure everyone will be aware of the new centre, or indeed be able to find it."

The Visitor Information Centre will be open 10am to 5pm seven days a week from May to the end of September.