WEST Somerset's premier holiday resort - Minehead - could be facing a season without any dedicated tourism facilities in a year that industry chiefs believe could be one of the busiest on record.

A purpose-built visitor information centre on the town's seafront closed last October just three years after it was built with the help of European funds when owners West Somerset Council declared it could no longer afford the £40,000 a year running costs.

But five months on and with Easter only six weeks away, it emerged this week that nothing concrete has been put in place to provide an on-the-spot service for visitors.

And the lack of action by local civic leaders drew the wrath of tourism experts and providers at a meeting of Minehead Town Council on Tuesday.

After a stormy debate, the council backed a move to begin negotiations with the district authority about taking over the ownership of the currently empty seafront centre, with a hoped-for transfer of the asset.

But at the same time councillors heard from Cllr Paul Grierson - a town and district councillor - that the district had all but decided the building should be let at a commercial rate - despite a raft of covenants restricting its use - and there was "no possibility" of any transfer to the town.

In yet another twist, the Minehead Development Trust -which is hoping to buy the town's old hospital to turn it into a community, economic and visitor attraction - is behind a bid to create a new visitor centre in an empty town centre shop - although it wants £35,000 of district and town council funding to do it.

And with at least one councillor calling the current chaotic situation "a shambles", local tourism representatives pulled no punches at Tuesday's meeting in their criticism of the failure of civic leaders to provide a service for the industry and the visitors on whom the town's economy relies so heavily.

After the closure of the visitor centre, the district council set up a temporary agreement with Porlock Visitor Centre to handle telephone, postal and email enquiries for Minehead over the winter months.

But Denise Sage, manager of the outlet, which is recognised across the district as delivering a hugely successful service, told town councillors she could not believe that nothing was in place to secure dedicated tourism provision for Minehead.

"You have got to get your act together - and you have just 39 days before we hand everything back to you," she warned councillors.

"This is already one of the busiest years we have had - it's been absolutely stunning so far and if you don't get off your backsides Minehead is going to lose an awful lot of trade."

Mrs Sage said the staff - and many volunteers who help run the Porlock centre - were not political and did not take sides.

She said the only reason they agreed to help was because they wanted to see tourism flourish in Minehead and the wider Exmoor area.

"But our resources are limited," she said.

The district council has been paying Porlock around £25 a week to provide the temporary service but staff and volunteers have been putting in hours and hours of additional effort to cope with the workload.

And on Wednesday morning a furious Mrs Sage made it clear that after realising how little their efforts had been valued she was pulling the plug.

In an email to town council clerk Sue Sanders, Mrs Sage said: "It's time that tourism on the cheap, as it has been for the last five months, came to an end - and I am ending it right now.

"We have definitely been taken for a ride here at Porlock Visitor Centre.

"We have done everything for Minehead to the best of our ability and at the cost of over £2,500 to us, plus all the voluntary hours we have all put in, because we want tourism to survive in West Somerset.

"We have done it cheerfully and willingly but I really saw red on Tuesday when I realised how little all our efforts are valued."

Mrs Sage warned that as from Wednesday, staff and volunteers at Porlock would be concentrating on Porlock work.

"We are only paid for two and a half hours a day so that will leave little time for additional work.

"We see our voluntary work of at least three hours a day as Porlock time, not Minehead time."

Mrs Sage's anger at the lack of action in Minehead was echoed at Tuesday's meeting by Linda Hatch from the Minehead Hospitality Association.

She warned that the town was in danger of being left behind if it did not have a dedicated tourism visitor centre.

And she reminded councillors that Minehead's whole economy, from the seafront to the retail centre, relied on tourism.

Mrs Hatch said Porlock Visitor Centre had done sterling work but could not be expected to replace a dedicated visitor centre.

"We are the largest town in West Somerset, yet we have no TIC - it is unbelievable.

"The potential to lose so much business does not bear thinking about.

"The season kicks off in two weeks with two West Somerset Railway weekends, followed by Easter, so time is of the essence."

After the meeting, the town council's visitor information centre working group, which has been in discussions with the district council since last autumn about future tourism provision, issued a statement.

It said: "In light of the concerns raised by members of the public and industry representatives at this week's town council meeting, we would like to stress to all businesses and residents of Minehead that as a group we are committed to finding a long-term solution.

'But we appreciate concerns about the lack of a visitor information service in the short term.

"We are conscious that we currently have a vacant purpose-built building in a prime tourist location and any other solution utilising a different location would need considerable subsidy from Minehead Town Council and any Minehead Town Council money contributed should achieve the best results."