A CAMPAIGN to save Minehead's purpose-built seafront visitor centre has made a bid for global coverage by launching a Facebook page.

As reported exclusively in last week's Free Press, West Somerset's premier holiday resort could be facing a season without any dedicated tourism facilities after the closure of the three-year-old centre last October.

At the time, owners West Somerset Council - who said it could not afford the annual £40,000 a year running costs - described the closure as temporary.

But with Easter only just over a month away, no firm action has been taken to provide an alternative service.

Now local businessman and Minehead town councillor Marcus Kravis has launched a plea to support the reopening of the centre by setting up a dedicated page on the social networking site Facebook.

Mr Kravis - who has stressed his actions have been taken entirely as an individual and not as a councillor - vented his fury last week over the lack of tourism provision in the town, calling the situation a shambles.

He is part of a review group of town and district councillors and officers which has been trying to find a solution to the problem since the end of last year.

But last week he voiced his anger at discovering that the district council had been in talks for a number of months with the Minehead Development Trust about the organisation's bid to set up a new tourist information centre in a town centre shop.

The review group, which includes Minehead Mayor Cllr Terry Venner, has since lodged a formal complaint over the conduct and behaviour of district councillors and officers, claiming it had been kept in the dark over the development trust's plans.

Mr Kravis told the Free Press this week that he had launched the Facebook page because he wanted to try and gauge opinion, both locally and further afield.

The development trust's bid to take over a former gift shop in The Avenue would require £20,000 of funding from the district council and a further £15,000 from the town council in the first year.

"I cannot get my head around the idea why on earth the district council would even consider funding the Minehead Development Trust to rent a shop in The Avenue when we have a purpose-built building sat there just waiting for somebody to turn the key," he said.

The centre was built with the help of European funds but has a raft of covenants restricting its use, which could limit the district council's hopes - revealed only last week - of securing a commercial rent for the property.

Mr Kravis said he feared he could be breaking a "few tweeting and blogging rules" because, even though he was acting as an individual, he was still a councillor.

"But I am so appalled at the current situation and the current proposal from the development trust that I am prepared to take any punishment from the Standards Board and even be disbarred from being a councillor.

"After all, if the two councils can't find a way to jointly save the building as a visitor centre when the district council has received a huge chunk of tourism mitigation funding from EDF Energy in respect of the proposed nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, then what is the point of being a town councillor?"

Mr Kravis said there were many questions that needed answering, including why the development trust, set up to save Minehead's old hospital and turn it into a community and economic hub, was behind a bid to launch a new visitor centre.

"What is their motivation in wanting to run a centre with a budget that relies so heavily on the selling of gifts?

"And if they do take control and it fails, who picks up the tab?"

Development trust members and Minehead Chamber of Trade chairman Graham Sizer told town councillors last week that there was no way the seafront centre could operate long term without subsidies.

He said the only sensible alternative was to move the centre into the town, restoring the link with residents which existed when it was located in Friday Street.

The trust's formal proposal maintains that the town centre location would make the visitor facility more attractive to residents, building a strong winter time business while also increasing trade for existing shops and businesses.

The Save Minehead Visitor Centre Facebook page, which contains photographs of the seafront centre and the proposed town centre shop, has had attracted more than 120 'likes' so far and a raft of comments.