Moves to bring a tourist information centre back into the heart of St Albans appear to have stalled.

Since the old town hall building has been transformed into the new museum and gallery, the city’s tourist information centre has been replaced with a ‘visitor information point’.

That has meant some of the services that had been used by residents – such as buying tickets, collecting brochures and accessing the internet – are no longer available there.

In July, councillors called on the leader of the council to reinstate a tourist information centre in the city, pointing to the new museum or the Alban Arena as possible locations.

And since then a working group has met to look at whether the return of a centre was feasible.

But at the latest meeting of the council’s cabinet (March 19), Liberal Democrat council leader Cllr Chris White revealed the council’s tourist information centre working party has decided against the possibility.

He said: “Following two meetings the group has decided not to recommend reinstatement of the tourist information centre.

“Instead they had identified enhancements to the current offer to address identified gaps in existing facilities.”

He reported that the group had suggested improving the social media promotion of the healthy hub – and for the new museum and gallery and the healthy hub to work closely together to signpost visitors and residents.

They had, he said, suggested the production of a short highlights version of the St Albans visitor guide for international and foreign language speaking visitors.

And it was said they had suggested a review of the use of space at the museum and gallery for visitor information, including the possible use of the railings outside.

It was also reported that they had suggested poster sites outside could include signposting to the visitor information inside the building.

In the past St Albans had had a tourist information centre inside the old town hall building.

It was relocated to the Alban Arena in March 2016, when building works began to transform it into the new museum and gallery.

But when the museum opened the space that had once been the tourist information centre became the museum’s education and learning area.

And the tourist information centre was relocated back to the museum building in the form of a ‘visitor information point’ within the welcome desk area.

Nationally it has been reported that there has been a trend away from people using tourist information centres to plan their visits, as they increasingly turn to the internet.