ANGRY Argyll hoteliers besieged the tourist information centre in

Dunoon yesterday demanding entry into the inaugural meeting of their new

tourist board.

But officials of the recently merged Bute and Cowal Tourist Board

refused them entry, saying the meeting was open only to invited members.

As more than 50 members of the Dunoon and Bute hoteliers' associations

demanded to be heard, officials in the tourist office called in the

police. However, they were not required.

Hoteliers and guest house owners earlier attempted to join the new

tourist board but had their applications rejected.

''It is completely undemocratic that this meeting was allowed to

proceed with only two directors and selected invitees deciding the

future of our new tourist board and we are barred from taking part and

voting,'' said Mr Ken Richardson, owner of the Caledonian Hotel in

Dunoon.

During the past five months there has been open hostility and much

acrimony over the merger of the former Dunoon and Cowal and the Isle of

Bute tourist boards.

An inaugural meeting involving more than 180 members of the two former

tourist boards last month saw the appointment of 12 directors but, as no

limited company had been formed, they were subsequently deemed no longer

to hold office.

Yesterday's meeting in Dunoon was an attempt, claim hoteliers, to have

the new tourist board formed without involving the membership.

Mr Bill Taylor, chairman of the Dunoon and District Hotel and Guest

House Owners' Association, said: ''Yesterday's meeting was a complete

farce and despite 36 hoteliers putting forward their membership

applications we were refused any part of the meeting.

''The only way we'll be satisfied is if the two current interim

directors, Douglas Campbell and Alan Frater, resign and take no further

part in the proceedings. We have no faith whatsoever in their ability to

run this company. They have bungled the entire affair.''

Dunoon Councillor Bob McLeary, who was one of six Argyll and Bute

district councillors who attended the meeting as observers, said: ''The

district councillors agreed that the tourist board should be more open

and democratic and open to every member. All of us were against the way

things were being handled up till now.''

Mr Ray Dalton, a Bute hotelier who had received an invitation to the

tourist board meeting, said afterwards: ''As the directors could not get

the necessary 95% majority to agree to hold an inaugural meeting of

those present, the board will now have to call a further meeting,

hopefully involving the entire membership. Everyone who wants to become

members of this new tourist board should be allowed to do so.''