Tourism minister asked to visit Northumberland
Dec 15 2010 By The Journal
TOURISM Minister John Penrose is being asked to visit Northumberland, amid fears over the impact of cuts to the industry in the area.
Northumberland County Council’s economic prosperity and strategic services overview and scrutiny committee believes there is no alternative funding for threatened tourism promotion funds and claims the county is suffering while other parts of the United Kingdom are unaffected.
The minister has set out the government’s funding plans for tourism for the committee and acknowledged the industry is “essential” to Northumberland.
Members have now agreed to invite Mr Penrose to see for himself the value of the industry and to meet them to discuss the funding situation. The invite came after it emerged that one tourism-based cut will not go ahead now.
Plans to scrap nearly £6m due to the North East for tourism support services carried out by local authorities have been halted following concerns across the region.
The county council committee chairman Coun Gordon Castle said after the meeting: “We wrote to the minister expressing our concern about the lack of funding source for Northumberland Tourism with the demise of One North East. There is no obvious funding mechanism in place. While we understand that we have to take our share of hits and economies, we are not on a level playing field.
“There are no funding cuts in Yorkshire or Scotland whereas Northumberland is going to have to struggle on its own. We are very concerned about any impact this will have.
“We worry any reduction of money to Northumberland Tourism will have a disproportionate effect.
“We depend heavily on tourism. It contributes an enormous amount to our economy of 20%.
“What we have decided is to write to the minister and invite him to come, because we do not think he has ever been, to see how attractive it is and how to promote it.”
In his letter, Mr Penrose set out the Government’s intention to invest £50m into marketing tourism over the next four years and to challenge the industry to match that to create a £100m fund to capitalise on the 2012 London Olympics.
He told the committee £1bn is being made available by the coalition through the Regional Growth Fund programme, to which tourism interests will be able to apply.
