LIVERPOOL City Council looks set to slash its contribution to Merseyside’s official tourist board and inward investment agency, the Daily Post can reveal.

It will pay the bare minimum to remain a member of The Mersey Partnership (TMP), but is unlikely to fork out much extra to subscribe to its tourism and inward investment functions.

The council is thought to be devoting its resources to regeneration company Liverpool Vision, which is being taken in-house.

Sefton Council’s leader also said its budget crisis means it plans to pay only membership and little else.

The councils’ apparent reluctance to pay into TMP is likely to heighten the debate over whether it and Vision should merge.

Last week, the Daily Post reported that David Wade-Smith, the businessman and city region cabinet advisor, had urged the two bodies to work more closely.

The former chief executive of the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), Steve Broomhead, also said it was the right time to have the debate.

They were commenting after lobby group Downtown Liverpool in Business chairman Frank McKenna said the organisations should merge.

TMP chief executive Lorraine Rogers was due to meet all six Merseyside local authority chief executives today where the issue of the body’s funding was due to be on the agenda.

In the coming weeks, she will meet them again one-to-one to discuss precisely which TMP services their councils want to buy into.

TMP sources said no final decisions about contributions had been made, but that all six Merseyside councils were committed to paying membership fees.

The Daily Post understands negotiations are ongoing about what “add-on” TMP services councils will take up.