Ulverston Tourist Information Centre

A successful resolution?

I guess I have a somewaht different perspective to the official line - "Thank you Kendal - grovel, grovel, - thank you, thank you, Graham Vincent for rescuing us"

It was a great insight to spend four market days talking to the people at the Market Square resulting in more than 400 signing a petition, 200 pledging money - with a few actually saying "as much as it takes" and with 18 volunteers committing themselves (James Airey to his credit added his name later).

The TIC really mattered to them.

I believe it matters to most of us.

We have lots of other issues that really matter to us. In order of stength of feeling I would place:

1. Control over the car parking policy, especially over land that Ulverston people own or have been bequeathed - The Gill and Stockbridge Lane respectively.

2. The running of our toilets

3. The running of our markets

4. The running of our Town Hall - which we do not own

5. The running of our Coronation Hall - which we do not own.

6. The maintenance of our streets.

7. The enforcement of Dog Fouling legislation

8. The enforcement of Car Parking legislation

True the order above may be at fault. - Speak up with your pet concern

The crunch line in all these is that -


We have no control over the above and we resent theis - Kendal in the form of local government does.

There are many towns where they do not have the same situation:

Grange has control over its TIC, its Town Hall and equivalent of the Coro.

Settle has control over its Market - something it fought hard for.

Now, as Grange are at present battling over  - with this control comes responsibility.

Control requires management, enforcement, policy  and maintenance. It's hard work.

It also requires financial commitment - Grange raises money through local rates to run their responsibilities - which can be seen as unfair - they pay twice - to the SLDC for other town's TIC and in addition for their own TIC.x

However what it has is pride.

If you visit the Grange Council Management there is a completely different atmosphere to that at Ulverston - there is no us and them - being kept at a distance,  I find here - keep your nose out - we know what is best for you - that you've read about here, at the Town Hall.

At Grange there's a real buzz of involvement. Their secretaries have time for you, the, in addition to the work commitments, organise fund raising activities like the recent Bay Walk. Their councillor, Tom Harvey, speaks up forcibly for Grange instead of the wimp behavior from our councillors - Janet Wilkinson, Colin Hodgson and James Airey - that I witnessed at the recent Cabinet Meeting that made me furious and led to the 'Wimps with no Balls' comment over their handling of the Stockbrige Carpark issue - which I still stand by - made by me recently here.

My point is:

We need to claw back control of the things that we consider important to the town.

This requires hardship - both financial and commitment of time - but from my contact on the Market Square - this what many (most?) Ulverstonians want.

Ulverstonians want their sense of pride back.

They want things like their Town Bank Clock fixed quickly when it appears a simple matter of a severed cable.

Councillors for the most part are out of touch with this sense of determination.

I get the dismaying response from Jenkinson and Bishop-Rowe and others that "Kendal would never allow that" and "I've tried and it can't be done". What a defeatist attitude.

Then to top it all there's this "leave it to us- we know best - if we can't do it - you certainly can't"  which I've proved wrong several times.

So TIC : missed opportunity in my view - we were heavily let down by the grand talking Paul Jarvis of Ulverston Community Partnership when in my view he had a viable commitment for Ulverston to take over the TIC and he avoided it. Neither did James Airey persuade him to change his attitude.

With an attitude like this, in the long term, we are sunk.

We will end up, as a thriving business man in the town predicts - a ghost town - a pale reflection of the leading Town in our area a century ago when the iron industry thrived under the Kennedys only a century ago.

With control over our TIC a sense of the community fighting together to make this the best TIC in Cumbria, could have resulted and with it could have come control over a tourist web site that is so essential.

What may happen next is that the TIC is vastly trimmed down in manpower to fit the needs of the Coro Hall itself (under the mismanagement of  a notoriously badly managed district council - in the bottom 15% in the country - who find it costs some £300 per week to maintain a toilet) so that it no longer operates effectively.

The next step in my thinking that would be a big one but thoroughly within the town's capability is the take over of the whole Coronation Hall operation.

We've enough enthusiasm for the activities here from a very wide area to help this do well in spite of cutbacks.

It would then be our Coro run for the benefit of our societies and performers and the people who risk putting on shows. We have the potential of a really  successful operation here.

Why leave it in the hands of Kendal and the SLDC to be messed around with.

Fighters - please step forward.

Are you one?