TOWN councillors and residents were furious when Kennet District Council failed to send anyone to a meeting on Tuesday to explain its plans for Marlborough's tourist information centre.

Kennet chief executive Mark Boden said council leader, Coun Chris Humphries, was on holiday and no-one else was available to attend.

Town and district councillor Nick Fogg said: "I hope Chris Humphries, basking on the beach in Thailand, is reflecting how important he is. Kennet District Council goes into a state of paralysis when he goes away."

Coun Fogg said the tourist information centre was the most efficient in the district and he believed the decision to relocate it to the library was reached for political and economic reasons.

He said the way the reorganisation of facilities was made public, mentioned in passing in a press release, was underhand, and that he thought the town council had a case for taking its complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

"These are the kind of shenanigans we would associate with national government, not our own local council," he said.

Coun Maurice Cooper said the personal touch and local knowledge available at the existing tourist information centre was not likely to be forthcoming from a computer terminal in a kiosk, which was being planned by the district council.

Resident Steve Pascall said: "Marlborough is the jewel in Kennet's crown and it is sad this meeting is taking place tonight. Had it been three months ago we could have done something about it."

Val Compton, who founded the local information point at the library, said that combining the two would be highly undesirable as staff would be unable to deal with each other's queries.

County councillor Margaret Boulton said she was extremely angry about the way the situation had been handled by Kennet. She said senior officers at County Hall knew nothing about relocating the tourist information centre to the library and wondered whether there would be room for it.

Former district councillor David Parker said the reorganisation of the tourism service had been discussed as part of the efforts to find £1.2 million savings in last year's budget.

He called for a meeting between officers from both councils.

Former Marlborough mayor Joan Evans said: "I am absolutely fuming that Mr Parker can ask us to be calm and take our time when he was party to discussing this issue.

"District councillors are there to represent the people of Marlborough at the council, not to represent the council to Marlborough people."

Coun Fogg moved that the town council reject Kennet's proposals and ask the district council to rescind them and consult Marlborough residents. It was passed unanimously.

Frank Marshall, Kennet District Council's director of community resources, told the Gazette after the meeting: "The way this has unfolded is unfortunate. Our view was that it was more appropriate to invite us to have a meeting with the town council then, if they were still not happy with what we are proposing, to have a public meeting.

"It was at short notice, we were not consulted about the date of the meeting and the leader was not even in the country."

Mr Marshall said that the proposal to close the TIC in George Lane car park was just one option that was being looked at. It was dependent on whether enough space could be found at the library, by building an extension at the back with access via a narrow lane from the High Street, or making more room in the area presently used by the local information point.

He said the other alternative might be moving the local information point to the existing tourist information centre. The new kiosks enable visitors and residents to access all kinds of information out of office hours.