Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by East Riding of Yorkshire Council

1.  BACKGROUND ON THE EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE AREA AND TOURISM

  1.1  East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) is England's largest unitary authority council by area, covering 930 square miles—this is 17% of the Yorkshire and Humber region. The relatively sparse population is around 325,000, of which 50% live in areas classed as urban (including the larger market towns) and 50% live in areas classed as rural. 20% of the population live in its coastal communities with the resort of Bridlington being the largest individual settlement with a population of 33,600. The most densely populated area is, however, the suburban fringe settlements around Hull which together are home to around 70,000 people. The administrative boundary of Hull City Council is therefore smaller than the functional urban area—a factor which is strongly reflected in the Hull and Humber Ports City Region Development Programme. The western part of the East Riding abuts the City of York.

  1.2  East Yorkshire has a diverse range of cultural, natural and built assets which attract visitors, boasting:

    —  A lengthy, varied and attractive coastline, extending 52 miles (84.5km) from the chalk headland at Flamborough through to Spurn Point and the Humber Estuary

    —  Superb countryside ranging from the East Yorkshire Wolds to the Holderness Plain

    —  A rich cultural heritage including historic remains from prehistoric and archaeological sites to stately homes, historic houses and ecclesiastical buildings

    —  Historic towns ranging from Beverley, Goole, Howden and Hedon to the market towns of the Wolds

    —  One of the East Coast's most popular seaside resorts, Bridlington, and the smaller seaside towns of Hornsea and Withernsea

    —  A diverse and growing programme of festivals, events, and other cultural activities

    —  Sporting and leisure opportunities from walking and cycling, including the Trans Pennine Trail and Wolds Way, to sailing, angling and bird watching

    —  Proximity to other major tourist destinations, including the cities of Hull and York, the North Yorkshire Moors National Park and the resort of Scarborough.

  1.3  Tourism is therefore a key economic driver, generating spend and supporting employment. However, it is true to say that the tourism offer is in many areas under-developed and disparate. The East Riding Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) recognises, through its Economic Development and Tourism Strategies, the need for further investment in the tourism "product" and its branding.

  1.4  Formed in 2006, Visit Hull & East Yorkshire (VHEY) is the area's Destination Management Organisation with responsibility for generating increased tourism activity in Hull and East Yorkshire through a range of innovative marketing activities, tourism business support and product development.

  1.5  Using the Cambridge Model, (and being mindful of its inadequacies, which are referred to later in the submission) the estimated value and volume of tourism to the Hull and East Riding economy in 2004 was:

    —  Value £540 million

    —  Nights 4,283,000

    —  Day visits 13,000,000

    —  Jobs 14,433

  1.6  As well as its role as an economic driver, tourism also contributes to the social and environmental well-being of East Yorkshire. ERYC is a member of the British Resorts and Destinations Association and we fully support its very comprehensive submission to this Inquiry. We feel, however, that it would be helpful to amplify a few points of most direct concern to local authorities.

2.  EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE COUNCIL'S ROLE IN TOURISM

  2.1  In December 2005, as part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, the Audit Commission ranked East Riding of Yorkshire Council as "improving strongly" and as one of only a few councils in the country to demonstrate this level of continued improvement. It was the only unitary council to gain four stars in all aspects of its Management of Resources in 2006-07.

  2.2  Notwithstanding the policy changes and pressures identified in BRADA's response, this Council's Tourism Policy still sees its role, working through the DMO, to provide strategic direction to the local tourism industry. Of prime importance is providing a strategic and operational role in maintaining a high quality physical environment.

  As the Tourism Strategy states:

  2.3  There is an inextricable link between tourism and the need to maintain the public realm. Visitors after all, are no more than residents with suitcases. If the town or region is attractive to visitors, then it is also attractive for residents. National pride, local pride and self confidence all benefit. Confidence in an area can be boosted through its perceived attractiveness to visitors. There are a wide range of local authority services which impact directly on the visitor, including:

    —  Street cleaning

    —  Street furniture

    —  Accessibility

    —  Parks and open spaces

    —  Cultural facilities

    —  Sport and leisure facilities

    —  Coastal protection

    —  Beach and foreshore management

    —  Conservation of the natural environment

    —  Preservation of historic buildings

    —  Building and planning control

    —  Environmental health

    —  Public conveniences

    —  Footpath maintenance and development

    —  Car parks and park and ride schemes

    —  Security

    —  Signage.

  2.4  Furthermore, with relatively small and geographically dispersed settlements, we must regard the vast majority of tourist attractions as part of the wider cultural offer for residents. This means that many arts and cultural centres, for example need to be multi-purpose and will remain in the ownership and management of the public or non-profit sectors. This is in contrast to larger resorts and destinations where the norm would be for them to be run as self-financing or fully commercial concerns geared more exclusively to attracting visitors.

  2.5  The funding of this activity and its impact on Council priorities is, we feel, one of the major challenges for the domestic and inbound tourism industries. The majority of these services are discretionary and for authorities not in receipt of large area-based initiatives there is a constant tension between the need to invest both capital and revenue in statutory service delivery and the discretionary services that shape places. This leaves Councils like the East Riding highly dependent on external funding to support measures to improve the visitor offer. However, despite the development of regional cultural partnerships, such as Yorkshire Culture, and the redesign of regional tourism structures in line with "Tomorrow's Tourism Today", there appears to be no coherence between the main funding bodies in terms of support for tourism investment beyond regional "icons" and 2012.

  2.6  We have also found something of a divergence between the requirement for investment to be embedded in a long term and comprehensive strategic plan and a willingness to provide support beyond the "flagship" stage. Within the Yorkshire and Humber Region, the Renaissance Towns programme, especially where the selected towns coincide with availability of EU Structural Funds has been vitally important in delivering some major improvements to public realm and new and improved cultural facilities. Whilst we fully endorse the need for achieving the maximum "leverage", regional agencies appear to have unrealistic expectations about the level of local authority and private sector contributions that can be achieved. It has to be recognised for many rural and coastal communities, there is a long process of "seeing is believing" and we are still faced with front-loaded programmes which pull the funding rug, just as communities' aspirations have been raised.

3.  THE ROLE OF THE VOLUNTARY AND NON-PROFIT SECTOR

  3.1  BRADA's response sets out very clearly the pressures that face tourism-related businesses. We would also point out that many visitor attractions and facilities are owned and managed by third sector organizations, such as the several Trusts and religious bodies which, largely through volunteer effort, sustain many of our heritage assets, including canals, ancient churches and other ancient monuments and museums. We must also not forget the role of town and parish councils which are often at the "sharp end" of delivering grounds maintenance, street cleansing and car parking services.

  3.2  Such organisations have many and varied specialisms, but most have very limited marketing and business development capacity and may be restricted by their charitable status. If we are to fully develop "experiential" marketing in line with the DMO approach, there must bespoke business advice and support for these organisations that links into major marketing campaigns and engenders collaborations with the major visitor attractions, hotel and guest houses, etc.

4.  WHAT DATA ON TOURISM WOULD USEFULLY INFORM GOVERNMENT POLICY ON TOURISM

  4.1  It has been acknowledged for many years that the Cambridge Local Area Model and other existing methodologies are not sufficiently accurate for policy making and expenditure decisions. We feel that a concerted effort to develop a sophisticated econometric model to cover tourism, culture and the public realm is needed. This need exists at all levels—to assist town and parish councils in determining and justifying decision to precept, to strengthen the process of business planning for individual projects, to enable tourism-related projects to be evaluated and prioritised more effectively against other economic development measures and to assist with Planning decisions, as well as to show broad impacts on visitor numbers and spend over time.

  4.2  What has also emerged over the past few years with increased community involvement in budget setting and Spatial Planning is the difficulty in demonstrating that investment in tourism-related facilities and services represents good use of local authority budgets. Exercises such as SIMALTO take into account resident council tax payers views, rather than those of visitors, and have revealed a strong degree of ambivalence. Of the list of activities in paragraph 2.3 above, residents tend to prioritise those such as parks and open spaces and footpath maintenance that most affect their daily lives. The budget setting process cannot adequately compare the potential economic impacts of spending decisions.

5.  THE PRACTICALITY OF PROMOTING MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FORMS OF TOURISM

  5.1  Again, BRADA has recorded the key points. However, we wish to raise one issue regarding Spatial Planning policy. Whilst the "Planning for Tourism" Best Practice Guidance 2006 encourages a proactive approach, we are experiencing an element of inconsistency with the base Planning Policy Statement, PPS7 Sustainable Development in Rural Areas. This states that in order to encourage sustainable development "The Government expects most tourist accommodation requiring new buildings to be located in, or adjacent to, existing towns and villages", whilst also encouraging good quality farm diversification schemes.

  5.  We plan further research on the sustainability impacts of different forms and locations of tourism accommodation to inform the development of our Local Development Framework, but feel that adjacency to existing towns and villages is not necessarily a prime factor in achieving sustainable development or preserving the character of rural communities. We also see scope for more a more integrated system to generate industry-agreed benchmarks for environmentally sustainable forms of tourism.

October 2007





 
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