The centre was one of several outlets and programs axed by Great Lakes Council last month after the State Government rejected its business rate rise request and left it with an $866,000 deficit.

A meeting of locals last Tuesday prompted the Bulahdelah Focus Group to call for the centre to be kept open until at least the end of October.

“We’d like a moratorium on it being closed,” group chairman Kevin Carter said.

The group also wants to address Tuesday’s council meeting about what it sees as the centre’s value. Great Lakes Mayor Jan McWilliams said both requests would be seriously considered.

“We will absolutely consider [keeping the centre open through October] and give them more time to get organised,” she said.

“The next meeting is a pretty full day for council with the mayoral and committee elections, but I’m sure we’ll be able to accommodate the focus group and allot them half an hour because it’s an important issue for Bulahdelah.”

Mr Carter said the group, which claims to represent not just business but a cross-section of Bulahdelah, will first meet this week with Great Lakes Tourism manager Richard Old to “discuss a few options”.

One is understood to be staffing the visitor centre with volunteers, while another is distributing information to tourists from the town’s rural transaction centre. But Mr Carter said the latter would be unpopular because of the extra traffic it would bring to the centre of town.

He said the Bulahdelah meeting’s audience of 140 showed the depth of dismay at the centre’s closure.

“In a town of only 1100, to get 140 at short notice makes us fairly confident people are angry and don’t want [the visitor information setup] to change,” Mr Carter said.

“We’ve got a mandate from the community to go to the council and try to get their decision reversed.”

The council’s decision to close the facility came with a joint announcement that Pacific Palms’ visitor information centre would also be scrapped. The total saving from the closures is estimated at $70,000.