Chester Visitor Information Centre Likely to Pass to Council

Cheshire West and Chester Council expects to take over the Chester Visitor Information Centre as Marketing Cheshire, the body that runs it, is broken up. The city’s Christmas market and its town crier are part of the same review.

The plan is in a report that went to the council’s Cabinet on Wednesday 11 November (Cabinet report, 11 November 2026). Nothing changes for visitors yet. The council’s agreement with Marketing Cheshire runs until September 2027, and the report asks Cabinet only to back a direction of travel.

Why Marketing Cheshire is being split up

Marketing Cheshire is the trading name of Cheshire and Warrington Tourism Board Ltd. It is owned by Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington (ECW), a company held in equal shares by three councils: Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East and Warrington.

The two bodies took over the old Local Enterprise Partnership’s work in February 2024. Then the Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority was set up in early 2026, with a legal duty to lead on growth, skills and investment. The councils have since been working out which jobs should move to the new authority.

Their answer, according to the report, is to decide function by function rather than move either company across whole. A joint committee of the three councils backed that approach on 20 October.

What the council would run in Chester

The report lists the Chester services the council currently pays Marketing Cheshire to deliver under a service level agreement:

• the Visitor Information Centre
• the Town Crier
• the Christmas Market
• destination marketing, partnerships and campaigns

The provisional finding is that the Visitor Information Centre is a local service and is “likely to sit outside” the Combined Authority. That “would see Cheshire West and Chester Council take responsibility” for it, the report says.

It also warns that the council must make sure “robust plans are in place for the transition, and future operation and funding of the service”. It gives no figure for what the centre costs to run.

The joint committee’s own report says the Visitor Information Centre and “Christmas Market activity” may be “better stewarded locally, principally through Cheshire West and Chester Council” (Appendix 1, joint committee report). The other services in the list have no stated destination yet. The report says each will need its own due diligence, and its timescale depends on legal, financial and procurement advice.

What goes to the Combined Authority

The bigger regional pieces are heading the other way. The report proposes that the Combined Authority should take strategic responsibility for:

• the Cheshire Science Corridor Enterprise Zone and its retained business rates
• most of ECW’s regional strategy work
• ECW’s regional investment fund interests, fund by fund

Cheshire East Council holds the money for several of those funds. The report puts their combined balances at more than £20 million, and says they are still being reconciled.

Marketing Cheshire’s regional work, including place marketing, the Local Visitor Economy Partnership and the Cheshire Film Office, is to be assessed separately. The joint committee report says Marketing Cheshire’s funding needs reconciling and it needs “a sustainable medium-term operating model”.

Staff and timing

No staff transfers have been agreed. The joint committee report calls workforce continuity “a significant transition risk”, because specialist knowledge sits with a small number of people and several posts are time limited.

Any formal consultation with staff will start only once firm proposals exist, the Cabinet report says. The aim is for new arrangements to be in place in spring 2027, and the final options will come back to Cabinet for a decision.

What it means for you

• Visiting Chester this winter: nothing changes. The Visitor Information Centre stays at the Town Hall, and the agreement covering it runs to September 2027.
• The Christmas market: this year’s market goes ahead as planned. Our Chester Christmas Market page has the dates and opening hours.
• Longer term: if the council does take the centre on, it will have to fund it from its own budget. That decision will come in a later Cabinet report, which we will cover.

Cabinet met on Wednesday morning. Its decision on the report will appear on the meeting page once published.