To be presented to the Ulverston Town Council tonight

Exert your influence on our spineless council.

Be there at their meeting at 7:15 pm tonight Monday 6th September, The Town Hall, Queens Street.

Your physical presence for 15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting will make a difference.

******

Proposal:

That a subcommittee be formed to examine the possibility of raising the precept  by 0.3% from 2.3 (which at present generates £138,000 for the council) to 2.6%, thus generating an extra £18,000. This money would be used specifically to promote Tourism in the Town.


The first aim would be to secure the future of the TIC in its present location with the expertise preserved by remploying key workers from the present staff. Further support would be provided by a team of local volunteers - max 30.


Further aims would be to ensure that a web site dedicated to promoting Ulverston to the tourist is maintained.


Lastly the aim would be to maintain a continuous focus of finding and promoting Toursims for the town for the future.

Points to emphasise

1. The public have not been consulted.

As far back as June 2010, Colin Hodgson assured me that the public would be consulted over the future of a TIC (see appended correspondence).

"I agree we need actions but we also need to find out
 does the community want it ,
 are they prepared to run it
 are they prepared to  pay for it
 is it worth doing
etc etc

Colin"

In practice Colin Hodgson has done nothing to consult the public as a whole.

My contacts with the public over the past few weeks indicate that they are very concerned and disappointed with the UTC's lack of initiative See 3. below.

2. Surrender of another important facility of the town to an unknown future.

The lack of control in the past has led to so many problems. Now is the time to reverse the trend and keep control here in Ulverston.

We in the past have lost control of our market, our toilets and worse of all our car parks.

Are we going to now loose control of our Tourist Information Centre?

People in Ulverston want the existing set up to be continued - both run by the same people and in this prestigeous location.

3. The petitions, to be handed in by Geoff Dellow, clearly show that a large number of the public wish their taxes to be raised in order to pay for this service.

410 signed the petition.

Some of these were tourists , some were people from post codes just outside Ulverston (eg LA12 8 and LA12 0)

However 190 inside Ulverston stated that they wished to have their rates increased between £5 and £20 in order to fund a preservation of the present set up of the TIC and improve the town's image on the Internet.

They did not want it to end up with the Stan Laurel Museum in the back of the Roxy because of its location, its uncertain future premises and for the potential lack of expertise.

They did not want an external non-Ulverston organisation taking over the centre because Ulverston has a totally different kind of tourism to offer to either Windermere and Kendal.

What's more there were 18 people who were keen to get involved at the TIC by volunteering to do a regular 3 hours per week, mornings or afternoons.

4. Elsewhere - Grange.This follows the pattern in existence at Grange TIC, which the Grange Council took charge of last September. They have even extended the days that this service is offered to seven days per week.
I have just spoken to the person on duty just now (Sunday at 15:00) they have a waiting list of volunteers at present and a professional from the previous staff coming in three days a week.

5. How Ulverston would run:

a) one of the existing staff  would be employed full time (or two part time)  - at Grange this salary was easily covered by £20,000/ year

b) Volunteers would supplement the service and learn on the job - possibly two per  three hour shift - 10:00 till 13:00 and 13:00 till 16:00 probably covering, as Grange does, 7 days per week.

c) The staff - volunteers and professional would be trained to maintain an upto date web site in conjunction with a professional tourist web site like http://www.visitcumbria.com which would promote Ulverston in exchange for revenues from local tourist businesses.

d) the staff and volunteers would explore and promote Tourism in Ulverston in any way possible. Any extra cash would be used to employ someone precisely with this aim especially in the first year.

e) the professional would also undertake a booking service for the Coronation Hall and charge SLDC for this service.

f) Revenue would be gained from the sales of tourist related books, cards etc etc. which I understand amounted to £26,000 / this last year.

g) the rent for the premisses would be paid to the SLDC bearing in mind that part of the work undertaken would be for the SLDC Booking service. Other locations in similar circumstances have been granted free rent by SLDC for a period of 18 months.

h) David Philips confirms that Ulverston is likely to receive £25,000/year first year reducing to £6 - 8 in the fourth year.

i) the Town Council would raise the precept by 0.3% thus generating a further £18,000 for tourism generally

6. Janet Jenkinson talked to me yesterday and is very fearful of UTC taking any responsibility.

The figure suggested by the SLDC of £80,000 for the cost of the TIC is obviously a paper figure and takes into account the costs of administrators beyond those providing the service. It also no doubt includes paper figures of rental charges for the hire of the hall (which are not saved when it is remembered that the space will have to be used as a booking office).

She believes that the UTC will incur great debts from this operation. The above figures do not support this assertion.

She even suggested that Grange is having problems obtaining volunteers which is not true - they have a waiting list - item 4.

Conclusion

The public clearly want the present TIC set up to continue , both in location and where possible personnel. It is seen not only as a valuable service to the tourist but is frequently used by the local people as well. They confirm the need for a good web site as do the tourists from further afield who use the internet.


The above finances show clearly that this is very much within the realms of possibility.


The discussion should not be diverted as to which organisation should undertake this responsibility - it could well be a charitable organisation set up specifically for this purpose. This organisation would be held responsible each year before its grant was renewed.

A subcommittee should be appointed to consider the possible alternatives.

Background:

 A campaigning table has been maintained for four times on market days

140 letters have been sent out to those signing in the first week, to urge them to attend the UTC meeting tomorrow Monday in person.

100 fliers have again been distributed to all the businesses in the town urging them to be present in person.

At least 20 people will attend - hoping for a lot more. Gavin Knott from Appleseeds and John  Blackmore-Tucker from Libra, Cavendish Street will speak in the 15 min.  public section at the beginning

Appendix

Correspondence with my SLDC councillor, Colin Hodgson

Geoff

I am also having disussions with local comunity groups regarding the ways in which we can run the  the TIC's etc localy. I had a meeting this morning with a group on this very subject but the outcome of the consultation will also prove a useful guide to what the community wants. I agree we need actions but we also need to find out
 does the community want it ,
 are they prepared to run it
 are they prepared to  pay for it
 is it worth doing
etc etc

Colin

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Geoff Dellow
To: colinc.hodgson
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 6:14 AM
Subject: Re: Cuts - taking the initiative!

Aren't we doing too much watching?

How come that Grange (am I right) has taken over its TIC following on from Broughton.

Some good PR needs to be done by Councillors like you to sell the idea of volunteering - not easy!

Geoff

On 10 Jun 2010, at 19:50, colinc.hodgson wrote:
Geoff

I fully support the idea

SLDC are consulting on the future roles and financing of the TIC's and public conviences with a view to obtaing input and support

from the private and voluntary sectors and I will keeping watch for the results and follow up

Colin 

----- Original Message -----
From: Geoff Dellow
To: Colin Hodgson
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 6:49 AM
Subject: Cuts - taking the initiative!

Colin,

Rather than wait for cuts to public services to be imposed, would it not be better to initiate alternatives along these lines:

http://geoffdellow.blogspot.com/2010/06/cuts.html

You could initiate a scheme , now, by which the public are encouraged to get involved with services like TIC, Libraries and the one that I am doing - the running of our parks - ie Mill Dam.

This would show that the Councillors are forward thinking and not just responding to crises at the last minute.

Geoff