A tourist information centre set to close because it is not "cost effective" may soon be resurrected as a base to promote Sedbergh's Book Town initiative.

Sedbergh National Park Centre will shut down at the end of the tourist season in October following a three-year period of grace.

The centre in Main Street was earmarked for closure in 2001 after a best value survey showed it was not attracting enough visitors.

But the decision to close the National Park Centre was put off for three years by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. The authority hoped that the Sedbergh Book Town initiative, which aims to turn the town into a literary centre, would boost tourist numbers.

But because there has been no substantial rise in visitors, the YDNPA has now decided to close the centre - meaning that two staff posts will be made redundant.

Julie Barker, visitors' service manager for the YDNPA, confirmed that the Sedbergh centre would be closing in October.

She stressed that the decision had "absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the service provided by the staff."

"It is one of those difficult situations. We do not want to close but at the end of the day the centre is funded with public money," she said.

However, members of the Sedbergh Book Town Committee have offered a ray of hope and are almost certain to take over the floor of the Main Street building previously occupied by the National Park Centre. They plan to install their own visitor centre in the building and hope it will also host individual bookstalls.

Sedbergh Book Town Committee secretary Carole Nelson said that the proposals were almost certain to go ahead bar one final meeting with the YDNPA She said: "A large part of what we need to do is to publicise Sedbergh as a book town, so to lose the tourist information office at this stage would be a disaster. We have decided to take over the tourist office independently because the tourist businesses in the town rely on us getting their information out to visitors."

The new centre's rent will be paid for by a combination of grants from South Lakeland District Council and the YDNPA.

However, staff salaries would be paid by the bookstall rents meaning that they may not be as high as when the centre was run by the YDNPA. But jobs at the centre would have to be re-advertised.

She said: "With employment legislation as it is we cannot offer to continue their employment and we would not be able to offer the same package at all, it will only be what we can afford. But we would love to have either one or both."

If plans get the go ahead the centre will open at the end of January to coincide with Twin Towns a BBC 2 series on the town to be broadcast early in 2005.