CHIEFS at a cash-strapped council have decided to axe its tourist information centre budget.

Fareham Borough Council's executive agreed to remove the annual funds for the town's facility from its 2015/2016 budget, saving £36,000 a year.

The council needs to find around £800,000 of savings to balance the budget for 2015/16.

This decision reflected the result of a 2013 Residents' Survey which asked residents to list the five services they regarded as most important and the five least important.

As previously reported, in 2013 council chiefs sanctioned a 15 per cent drop in funding for the tourist information centre, in Westbury Manor Museum, from April 2014 in a bid for savings The centre's budget had already seen a 16 per cent funding drop in 2012/13.

The decision was made at a meeting of the council's cabinet where it was also agreed the council would become a destination partner with Tourism South East at a yearly cost of £1,500.

Councilors also decided to cut the annual budget for community grants to £80,000.