Museum in tourist centre bid (From Cotswold Journal)

Museum in tourist centre bid

4:00pm Thursday 7th February 2013 in News

A CRICKET museum in Stow is making a bid to open a tourist information centre after the closure of the town’s previous facility last month.

Andy Collier, owner of the Cotswold Cricket Museum, in Brewery Yard, Sheep Street, is hoping to set up a tourist centre in the building’s café area after the closure of Go-Stow. Mr Collier and his wife Marion opened the museum last spring after relocating from Guildford.

They are hoping the town council will favour their proposals after Cotswold District Council’s (CDC) cabinet agreed to provide a £10,000 grant to “support the continued provision of a visitor information service in Stow”.

Mr Collier said they were keen to see a tourist information centre in the town.

“Stow needs a TIC,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who come here. I was a bit disappointed that it [Go- Stow] went. We want to do something for Stow.”

As reported in the Journal last month, Sue and Walter Hasler, who owned Go-Stow, were forced to close the centre after failing to secure much-needed funding from either CDC or Stow Town Council.

The couple had run their independent business in Talbot Court for three years but felt they should receive the same funding from CDC as other centres nearby.

Stow Mayor Robin Jones said since the closure of Go- Stow, businesses had shown an interest in keeping a tourist centre in the town.

Tim Norris, Stow Civic Society chairman, said: “I’m delighted the cricket museum is taking it on and I’m relieved that somebody has,”

he said. “But it’s not the solution we would have chosen had we had the option. We would have chosen to keep Go-Stow open.”

Town councillors will discuss the tourist information centre at a meeting next Thursday.