It's sad to learn that after two seasons
our visitor centre is to close for good, after lights out on September 30th. Perhaps, though, this is inevitable. These days, few towns seem to be able to justify a centre: the 2014 north east Wales borderlands brochure cites just Llangollen, Mold and Wrexham. No mention of Rhyl's, in spite of a large splash about the town. Rhuthun/Ruthin's is run by volunteers, of course, so there are no staffing costs but otherwise it cannot come cheap. In the Free Press, our town centre co-ordinator, Shelly Barratt, somewhat inelegantly hinted at the cause when she said,
"You can't put a figure on a council spreadsheet of how good something feels or quantify what the value is of making a visitor welcome to a town"
To many, this will appear as if funders are simply being stingy but actually you can't keep going cap in hand for subsidy when times are increasingly hard. Better, then, to look towards sustainability and the only way to do that is to find somewhere rent-free or low rent, such as the gaol, library, craft centre or Nantclwyd y Dre.
Is such a move likely? That's what a town centre co-ordinator should be facilitating. Yet, none of these locations offers such a conspicuous town centre position as the current site. The most likely 2015 venue is Nantclwyd y Dre. It had previously been proposed but it is somewhat out of the way. And, of course, it isn't open much but surely the presence of a tourist centre might actually assist and support Nantclwyd. An increase in footfall would help justify the house's extended opening hours.
In the end, it's not actually a lack of funding that has closed the visitor centre. The site has always been on a short lease. The lessor has agreed terms with neighbouring Choo Choo Etc Etc. In expanding into the visitor centre, although it may seem that Choo Choo is taking over the world, it is good to see a business thrive in Rhuthun. Ask the proprietrix and she will tell you that the move from Castle Mews to the Square has done her business and her turnover absolutely no harm at all.
Meanwhile, there are just 10 days left to marvel at the range of local information still available at the centre.
The Denbighshire council website shows five "tourist information points" in the county, two of which are centres. One "point" is at the craft centre. But where's the actual Rhuthun visitor centre?
