The Future of Ulverston's Tourist Information Centre

Photo Ian Taylor and used thanks to his Creative Commons License

At present we have an excellent set up.

At the moment we have a very good system operating for an important aspect of the town's economy - Tourism. An industry that has a direct impact on many of the shops in the town.

The upgrading of the County Square has made it the focal point for tourists arriving in the town.

Coaches deliver their tourists to this venue or to the nearby Victoria Bus Station.

The new Laurel and Hardy Statue has attracted tourists to the front door of the TIC, with nearby wide open doors has had its business double recently.

Here at the centre we have staff with as much as 20 years experience (and no less than 8 ) to give a wealth of advice to tourists.

The Laurel and Hardy Museum also benefits from being in the nearby Roxy building.

The possible future.

Yet because of the expenditure cuts proposed by the ruling Lib. Dems. all this could change as soon as April next year :

1. The staff at the TIC may have been dispensed with.

2. The offices in the Coronation Hall may no longer be available for Tourist Information and be restricted to a Box Office for the shows held in the Coro.

3. The uncertain future of the Roxy, now that the main use as a night club has been halted (with the exit of Gary Robinson), leaves the future of the Laurel and Hardy Museum in that location in doubt.

The outcome for the first two of these items hinges on the proposals to be made to a meeting called by SLDC , this Monday, for organisations to voice their intitial proposals.

So what would be good for the town :

1. That the Town Council take this service under their wing making an effort to involve the voluntary sector as well as professionals.

2. That they raise money were necessary by increasing our rates which they could if they wished.

3. That they get greater involvement with the Tourism Industry here so that they share some of the burden as well as the benefits of having a vibrant tourist economy.

4. That they push harder for an excellent web site for Ulverston instead of using their money to promote themselves as Councillors and allowing Jayne Kendal to opt out on the opportunities that were available to her leaving what is now a defunct web site (the demise of this site is an absolute disgrace in my opinion).

My concerns.

What concerns me is that I suspect that our local councillors are not taking the initiative to help solve this crisis. Unlike Grange who now have their own TIC , along with Broughton who took over the initiative two years ago and now I believe Coniston. These towns put Ulverston to shame - for how much longer?

Ulverston along with Kendal and Windermere have an uncertain future, if an organisation takes them all over, it will be Ulverston that will loose out.

I dread a future front page of the Evening Mail along previous lines when a picture of Colin Hodgson or another SLDC councillor is shown wringing their hands at the loss of yet another facility in the town. It seems that for the most part our councillors stand by and react to disaster rather be proactive and wrestle with a problem and offer a solution.

It would be good to find at the meeting this next Monday that this will not be true.

Important

For me, as someone very much involved with tourism in the town in the past, it is extremely important that we as a town take on the running of this facility and do not leave it to outsiders who also administer Kendal and Windermere to do it for us.

We have a very different product to sell and we should take charge of every aspect of selling it. A good TIC is one part of the jigsaw. A good web site would be another - but let's take one step at a time!

I'm hoping the Cllr Judith Pickthall, who has shown an interest in this situation as well as the health of our Town Market, has a few tricks up her sleave.

I'm also looking to our new Chair of the Ulverston Community Partnership, Paul Jarvis , to have some firm proposals that will rescue the situation as it is reported by our town clerk that they have expressed an interest in running the Coronation Hall based Ulverston TIC.

Frustrations in getting information

Since writing this I have spent a very frustrating time trying to reach people at SLDC offices four phone calls resulted in being tranfered to one office to another, receiving a statement that they would ring back and after two hours they have not, being tranferred to the correct extention but being left with and endlessly ringing town, in a following call being transferred to a silent line which remained that way of two minutes.

On the last occasion, getting the same operator ( and I still managed to be patient but persistent) I was finally put through to a real person - David Phillips who confirmed that a meeting called by Michel Keane was taking place but that the information was confidential and that members of the public were not to be admitted.

I shall now chase what information I can find through alternative channels. At times like this it is easy to give up.

The general attitude is "Leave it all to us and keep your nose out" only to find that those in charge are apathetic and only get involved in an ineffective way giveing everyone they can the impression that they are working hard. But are they?

What would be encouraging is to find that our District Councillors are not simply acting as bystanders to this process but are actively engaged in achieving a result. So far I have found that three Councillors have at least asked questions at the TIC - they are Judith Pickthall , Town Councillor, Norman Bishop-Rowe, both Town and District Cuncillor and Mark Wilson District Councillor. But what are they doing to support a local bid.

Being outside the system is very frustrating which makes me even more determined to get elected and be in a position to ask questions more effectively and to promote action where this is possible.