"IT is tourist information centres like yours that make the life of a tourist more pleasant". That is one of the comments Monmouthshire council still proudly displays on its website posted less than six months ago following a comprehensive refit costing nearly £16,000 for a service that according to officers is underachieving.

As the campaign to save Monmouthshire's TICs gathers momentum and critics slam the proposals to close the three centres in Chepstow, Abergavenny, and Monmouth in favour of internet platforms, it seems the council have made a rather sudden U-turn in opinion.

It was only in August of last year that MCC posted a story on its tourism website - following a refit, financed, they described, to 'enhance the already excellent service' - that highlighted an Australian couple's visit to Chepstow and their subsequent praise for the TICs.

Mr and Mrs Powell, who visited in June 2010, were so impressed with the "professionalism and interest" shown by the TIC staff that they wrote to thank them for contributing to their time in Wales, which they said was the highlight of their six-week trip to the UK.

The couple advised friends to visit Chepstow TIC should they travel to Wales, and also told staff that, "it is tourist information centres like yours that make the life of a tourist more pleasant.

"Your guidance of where to visit in the local Chepstow area and the rest of Wales made our visit all the more easy and memorable."

A comment from Chepstow TIC supervisor, Kate Burton, on the council website said: "We're thrilled with the refit, which allows us to provide a much more efficient service to Chepstow's visitors.

"We can now also support more of Monmouthshire's local producers by displaying and selling more of their goods. The improvements also allow our staff to welcome and assist visitors in a more attractive and up-to-date environment, and we were thrilled to receive such a glowing recommendation from our Australian visitors."

Staff at the Chepstow TIC further proved their worth last summer, when a group of Muslim schoolchildren and staff visited the town and found themselves short of an appropriate location in which to carry out their daily prayer. Disoriented, they turned to staff at the TIC for advice on a suitable location and in an act of professionalism and kindness, staff offered the group the use of a spare room in the centre.

At a meeting in County Hall last week, Regeneration Officer, Kelly Beirne presented a report that suggested the TICs had been under performing and were no longer an asset to the county's tourism industry according to council statistics.