IMAGINE this. My city’s economy, heavily dependent on tourism, has been ravaged by a Russian nerve agent attack.

It’s been in the world’s headlines for all the wrong reasons. Visitors have stayed away in their droves.

As a shopkeeper I’m thousands of pounds out of pocket despite promises of adequate recompense from On High. I desperately need these people to return.

Now imagine this. I’m a tourist.

Maybe I’m one of the day-trippers who park in New Street, Brown Street, Salt Lane or Culver Street, or use the park and ride.

Out of all the unlikely places I’d go to seek out information about local attractions and facilities, a cubbyhole beneath a dingy Eighties car park on the far side of the city centre is one of the unlikeliest.

Yes, it’s on the route I’d take if walking in from a coach at Avon Approach or from the central car park.

Otherwise, it’s a long way out of my way to the Old George Mall, the High Street, the Cathedral, the Market Place coffee shops …

I (the hypothetical visitor) wouldn’t make that detour. People are lazy. Not everyone can walk that far.

Yet that’s where our city councillors have decided to move the tourist information centre, despite the well-informed worries of our Blue Badge guides and our Civic Society.

Having made up their minds to co-locate it with Shopmobility in a ‘Community Hub’, they left themselves no choice. Not once plentiful disabled parking spaces became a vital component of the deal.

Community. Hub. Two words beloved of jargon-ridden local authorities. Two of the most misused words in the English language, usually associated with reports advocating spending cuts.

Now I’ve heard it said that most tourists these days do their research and make their bookings online. And they’ll still be able to pick up a map at the Guildhall.

Besides, just think of all those lovely savings from redundancies among the two offices’ combined staff. Mind you, there’s an initial cost to be factored in there.

So the final bill will be rather more than the optimistic £35,000 being set aside to smarten up the Maltings unit and relocate the council’s email and call-handling service.

On the other hand, the prospect of freeing up potentially lucrative commercial space in Fish Row is bound to appeal to a hard-up local authority. Another coffee shop, anyone?

As for Wiltshire Council’s intention to redevelop the Maltings, well, there’ll be time to worry about that if it ever happens….

I harbour dreams (silly, I know) that our citizens will one day again be trusted to run their own affairs, free of Trowbridge control freakery. But while they pursue schemes like this one, I’m not sure we could trust our city councillors with any more power than they already have.

Even a Christmas Market-style kiosk in the Guildhall Square would serve tourists, and therefore traders, better than this. It would need staffing, of course …

anneriddle36@gmail.com