Coffee and shops in Bradford on Avon are ending their membership of the town’s Tourist Information Centre after it opened its own cafe, claiming it could be detrimental to their businesses.

The TIC opened the Pavilion Cafe two weeks ago, in a bid to make its operations self- sufficient after funding cuts.

Tony Kurtis, a partner of Coffee Etc in Lamb Yard, said: “There has been no communication. We heard it on the grapevine. It is unfair, from conception to the launch and the future.

“It is detrimental to other businesses in the town. It could prevent people from moving on across the bridge.”

Roy Hayward, one of the owners of the Bridge Tea Rooms, said: “They claim they have to do it in order to survive. So, to make sure it works, they have to get as many people through the door. It is a conflict of interests.

“The issue is, do they have planning permission, because their status is A1? To be a cafe you have to A3.”

Alison Hayward, another owner of the Bridge Tea Rooms, said: “I understand they can’t recommend specific ones [businesses], but that doesn’t seem to be the case when they are tweeting about the Pavilion Cafe.”

Both Mr Kurtis and Mr Hayward said they would not be continuing their membership with the TIC, but would be looking at other marketing alternatives in the area.

Andrew Wright, the managing director of FAB! Events Global Ltd, which manages the TIC, said: “We wrote to the planning office and they said a change of use can occur within the TIC without the need for planning permission. We are still 75 per cent a tourist information centre. No building work took place, just alterations to the interior.

“We researched for 12 months and reported back at the partners meeting and said we were open to suggestions, but no-one came back to us.

“We have television screens advertising all our members. I don’t see any tweeting coming from our cafe members. If they tweet, we will retweet.

“We are trying to get people to stay a little longer at the TIC, so our volunteers can tell them about our members and all there is to do in Bradford on Avon.”

Money for the alterations came from the Bradford on Avon Tourism Association, but Mr Wright would not say how much the cafe cost.