A very subdued Geoff Dellow presented the case for the council to support the tourist industry , here in Ulverston.
Deaf ears were what I expected.
I wasn't disappointed.
So now I'm out talking to the business community in the town and getting quite the opposite reception.
There is keen interest in making a bold statement to our Council by attendance en masse at their next meeting on one Monday 6th September at 7:15.
Cllr Colin Williams, who regretted privately the lack of an opportunity to debate the issue at the last meeting, has been asked to table an item for the agenda of this next meeting:
"The Town Council Support of Tourism in the Ulverston area"
A pre-meeting of those who benefit from tourism with interested councilors is being organised.
It will focus on two issues:
The imminent closure of the Ulverston Tourist Information Centre in the Coronation Hall next March 20011.
The failure over the past four years for the council to provide an attractive web site for those researching a holiday in the Ulverston area using the internet. The contrast with Grange over Sands is dramatic.
Those interested in this issue should approach me using gd at tygh.co.uk to be informed directly - otherwise continue to use this blog.
In a subsequent development, the Evening Mail has picked up on my plea to the council last Monday with an article that embellished their story to create a good head line with a statement about putting 80p on the council tax. All I did was highlight Grange's Town Council different attitude whereby they have made a 2.5 % rise in their rates to help with their Tourist Information Centre and their web site.
2 comments:
Have a read of this and post your thoughts:-
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2010/08/pms-speech-on-tourism-54479
Personally I'm confused on what exactly the government are wanting to do in the area of tourism. They've got rid of the regional development agencies where a large pot of tourism grants came from but an alternative source/support is not planned/in place.
A minister was in Kendal a couple of weeks ago where he was basically saying the community has to find the solution to tourism (you're on your own mate)
Then in the PM speech (link above) he said-
If a local council does more to attract tourists to its area they know they’ll be picking up costs but they’ll get none of the additional business rate revenue. Central government sucks in 100 per cent of this revenue generated by all local economic growth. This is just mad.
Local authorities must be allowed to invest some of this back into their own communities. This wouldn’t just help tourism – it would help all sectors of local industry across our country. And it’s a vital part of how we can begin to rebalance our economy.
This sounds like a good carrot, but he doesn't say how business rates will change so local councils get some of the cash which if think is vital to get councils supporting growth
Sounds at the moment councils don't have a carrot to get involved.
As to on-line promotion, alot of people are doing it themselves, a good example is a lady in Grasmere who's using twitter to advertise events in the lakes and grasmere, she has 800+ following her Grasmere page and 2200+ following her, she's so populate that tourists visiting the lakes will make a point of visiting her. Those 3000+ plus eyeballs soon increase to 50,000+ as her posts are re-tweeted
http://twitter.com/grasmerevillage
http://twitter.com/cragchris/
Dave, thanks for this background.
Here are the links in Dave's post in clickable form:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2010/08/pms-speech-on-tourism-54479
http://twitter.com/grasmerevillage
http://twitter.com/cragchris/
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