Tourism: MPs want answers

Questions raised in corridors of power.

QUESTIONS must be asked over the Government’s decision to give tourism in Yorkshire �10million at a time when funding for the South West has been axed.

That is the view of Tiverton and Honiton MP Neil Parish.

The Conservative is supporting moves by industry leaders in the region to form a consortium to continue the work of South West Tourism when it closes at the end of the financial year.

“I am delighted that South West Tourism are being so proactive in setting up a consortium to carry on the work of championing some of the most beautiful coastlines and countryside in the UK,” Mr Parish told The Midweek Herald.

“On a less positive note, I believe questions have to be asked as to why one county is receiving, for the third year running, more funding than the whole of the South West region; an area dependant on tourism and which has an average annual salary well below the national average.”

Meanwhile, East Devon MP Hugo Swire is seeking a meeting with Tourism Minister John Penrose.

“It really cannot be fair that one part of the country can be allowed to spend millions of pounds on tourism when another part has no funding at all,” Mr Swire told The Midweek Herald.

“Tourism is our lifeblood here in the South West and I am urgently seeking a meeting with the Tourism Minister John Penrose who, as a Westcountry Member of Parliament, should understand our concerns as much as anybody.”