COUNCIL POISED TO SPLASH OUT £100,000 PUBLIC MONEY ON YET ANOTHER TOURISM 'MASTERPLAN'

                                                 

Stand by for a new masterplan (yes another one) for Cleethorpes

JUST when everyone thought North East Lincolnshire Council was strapped for cash, it is poised to shell out £100,000 on consultancy fees.

That is the sum earmarked to hire a firm to carry out yet another report - there have already been many others  - on how to develop  Cleethorpes as as an all-year resort.

Says a NELC spokesperson; "We're on the hunt to to find some specialist expertise to create a new masterplan for the resort and town centre.

"The key outcomes are to increase footfall across Cleethorpes, to extend the traditional tourism season and to make the resort attractive year-round.

"We are keen to encourage more overnight staying visitors, and to increase sustainable jobs and opportunities for local people."

The costly initiative is being backed by council leader Cllr Philip Jackson who says: "The time has presented itself for us to take another look at the resort and what the art of the possible might be.

"We are looking for external expertise to enhance our in-house team and set a new vision for the tourism sector over the next decade.

"Once we have a consultancy on board to help us through this next stage, a key part of their work will be to talk with local people about what they want to see.

"It might be park-and-ride facilities or great new businesses - no ideas are off the table at this point. 

"We need to gather ideas, understand what local people as well as visitors want and need, and shape our plans around the key themes."

The Grimsby News says: Oh no, here we go again! NELC is poised to spend a cartload of money on a glossy report which, like all the others before it, will be launched with great fanfare, then put in a filing cabinet and quietly forgotten about it. Why can't the council's senior executives do this work? Isn't that what they are paid (handsomely) to do? If they are unable to come up with workable ideas, why are they being employed at all?  The council leader is a sensible fellow, but does he really believe this is prudent expenditure of public funds? How easy it is to spend money when it does not come out of your own wallet. Before it is too late, Cllr Jackson should  scrap this worthless project and save wasting a whole lot of  time and cash.  How Cleethorpes develops in the years to come will be determined not by council bureaucrats, nor by the whims of a here-today, gone-tomorrow consultancy but by market forces and the imagination and drive of  energetic entrepreneurs.