ILKLEY'S Visitor Information Centre has been recommended for closure following a review of Bradford's tourism service - despite it being the busiest in the district.

Bradford Council is having to save £172,000 from the service this year and commissioned consultants Team Tourist to set out the options for doing this.

The consultants have now set out four different options, but all involve closing the Ilkley VIC located within the Council-owned town hall on Station Road, despite it being the busiest in the district for the number of visitors (75,726), the cheapest to run (£56.7k) and the most cost effective. It generates the most income - 32p per visit - much of which is from ticket sales for the King's Hall.

However, the consultants argue visitors are primarily locals and recommend it for closure, along with Saltaire VIC, as one option, which would save £142k. Option two, to maintain Haworth but close all other VICs would save £213k, option three - favoured by the consultants - to keep Bradford VIC but close Ilkley, Haworth and Saltaire VICs would save £244k and option four to close all VICs would save £315k.

People are now being invited to have their say, with a consultation running until Sunday, March 5. People can give their views by visiting www.bradford.gov.uk/consultations where they can read the full report.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Ind, Ilkley) who regularly stages shows at the King's Hall and other venues in the town told Ilkley Parish Council she used the visitor information centre to sell tickets.

"There is no way I could sell tickets for the shows if the visitor information centre didn't exist," she said.

"One of the inferences of why the tourist information centre is not essential to Ilkley is that a lot of the visits are from local residents," she said. "I can tell you that is not true. For the shows I put on in Kings Hall 30 to 40 per cent are from outside Ilkley."

She said many of those buying tickets from the centre were from areas around Ilkley, such as Skipton, Lancashire, Yeadon and Guiseley.

"They not be tourists but they are visitors. They are visitors to Ilkley and they are bringing money into Ilkley."

She stressed that the tourist information centre was providing a valuable service to the town and said it was important to look at how it could be retained. She urged local people to look at Bradford's consultation document and make comments on the proposals.

She said the Bradford strategy to develop tourism stressed the importance of toilets and car parking - while at the same time Bradford was having to shut Ilkley's toilets down.

Ilkley Parish Council Chairman Cllr Brian Mann said: "As far as the tourist thing is concerned one gets the impression there is a left and a right hand within Bradford."

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council's Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Culture, said: "We hope people will give their views of what they would like to see the tourism service deliver.

"Obviously there are changes in consumer demand which means people book trips and find out information in different ways such as from websites, social media and online booking sites so we have to bear all these things in mind."