West Berkshire Tourist Officer, Do we ned one and does it offer value for money? Options

[MontyPython]

What are peoples views on the the fact we have a tourist officer?

Do people think this is a good use of our money? How much does the service cost, how many tourists do we get - and would many of would have come anyway?

...and does anyone know if we are obliged by government to have one or can share one with neighbouring authorities.

[GMR]

What are peoples views on the the fact we have a tourist officer?

Do people think this is a good use of our money? How much does the service cost, how many tourists do we get - and would many of would have come anyway?

...and does anyone know if we are obliged by government to have one or can share one with neighbouring authorities.

A tourist officer for what? Vodafone? Hungerford massacre? Newbury's new 20,000 houses being built? Our pot holes? Council estates? Newbury Race's? Donnington Castle? Lidl's? I suppose putting it that way.... well spent.

[Cognosco]

A tourist officer for what? Vodafone? Hungerford massacre? Newbury's new 20,000 houses being built? Our pot holes? Council estates? Newbury Race's? Donnington Castle? Lidl's? I suppose putting it that way.... well spent.

I think you have misunderstood....... our tourist officer is there to inform Newburians where they can visit other interesting towns for a day out elsewhere in the country as they know Newbury is very lacking for this sort of thing......so money well spent?

[blackdog]

What are peoples views on the the fact we have a tourist officer?

Do people think this is a good use of our money? How much does the service cost, how many tourists do we get - and would many of would have come anyway?

...and does anyone know if we are obliged by government to have one or can share one with neighbouring authorities.

I think, but am far from sure, that WBC is obliged to provide tourist information via tourist/visitor information point(s) andor tourist information centres. How they provide and staff this service is, I suspect, up to them.

[On the edge]

Lets be brutally honest, at best this is a 'nice to have'. After all, the local motorway services have leaflet racks. The transport companies should be selling their services themselves. If we must have an enquiry desk, couldn't it simply be done by the existing Reception / Enquiry desk staff at the Library and or Town Hall?

[GMR]

I think you have misunderstood....... our tourist officer is there to inform Newburians where they can visit other interesting towns for a day out elsewhere in the country as they know Newbury is very lacking for this sort of thing......so money well spent?

As I understand it he is also there to inform people good places in Newbury, as well as anywhere else.

[blackdog]

As I understand it he is also there to inform people good places in Newbury, as well as anywhere else.

She. And her staff. They also connect people with local B&Bs - find yourself in a town needing a place to stay, drop into the local TIC and they'll find you a bed for the night. Of course, by the time you realise you need a bed the TIC will be closed and you will simply use your phone to hook up with a B&B, Travelodge, etc.

[x2lls]

Do they collect the rubbish so tourists get a better impression?

[Simon Kirby]

What are peoples views on the the fact we have a tourist officer?

Do people think this is a good use of our money? How much does the service cost, how many tourists do we get - and would many of would have come anyway?

...and does anyone know if we are obliged by government to have one or can share one with neighbouring authorities.

I'm 99.999% certain that the council is under no duty to promote tourism or provide tourist information. I believe it has the power under S.144 of the Local Government Act 1972 to do it, but there is no obligation that it should. It's a choice then for the council where promoting tourism comes in its priorities.

[MontyPython]

I'm 99.999% certain that the council is under no duty to promote tourism or provide tourist information. I believe it has the power under S.144 of the Local Government Act 1972 to do it, but there is no obligation that it should. It's a choice then for the council where promoting tourism comes in its priorities.

My resaerch online indicates the same.

As we don't appear to have anyone suggesting having this position/department has brought much benefit to the district, perhaps it is time to abolish it and use the money to provide something useful to the residents and tax payers of West Berkshire.

[Simon Kirby]

My resaerch online indicates the same.

As we don't appear to have anyone suggesting having this position/department has brought much benefit to the district, perhaps it is time to abolish it and use the money to provide something useful to the residents and tax payers of West Berkshire.

Yup, I'd support that suggestion.

Tourist Information Centres are handy in tourist towns - Mrs K. and I like to take day trips and the TI office is one of the first places we call - but that's in tourist towns, and Newbury doesn't have much to attract the tourist, not enough to warrant a TI office.

The library would be a good place to have a stand for leaflets, but other than that TI appears to function as a kind of travel-agent-come-advertising-agency, and I really don't see how the public interest is served by that in Newbury, not when that function competes with similar services already provided by private enterprise.

[Exhausted]

Where is the tourist information office.

[Simon Kirby]

Where is the tourist information office.

I remember it being on the wharf, but apparently it is now in the town hall.

Hey, nice grit bin.

[NWNREADER]

I remember it being on the wharf, but apparently it is now in the town hall.

We'd best not sell the Town Hall, then.....

[blackdog]

I remember it being on the wharf, but apparently it is now in the town hall.

It had to move out of the Wharf because of the museum redevelopment - perhaps it will move back when the musuem works are finished (assuming they ever start). Meanwhile NTC will be getting some rent from WBC.

[Simon Kirby]

Meanwhile NTC will be getting some rent from WBC.

Do you know that? You can't take anything from NTC on face value, you always need to dig and question.

Take the market cleansing "contract". It was nothing but a scam, a pretext for giving WBC £60k from the precept. WBC didn't do £60k of cleansing, and now the marketeers self-cleanse it costs them virtually nothing to do it - I asked them. There was a reason for NTC giving WBC that money, and if it didn't buy market cleansing it had to buy something else - like an incentive to rent town hall space at an apparent market rent to make the books look better?

[massifheed]

Hungerford massacre?

At the risk of drawing further attention to your quote - why the need to bring this into a discussion about a tourist officer?

[CharlieF]

She. And her staff. They also connect people with local B&Bs - find yourself in a town needing a place to stay, drop into the local TIC and they'll find you a bed for the night. Of course, by the time you realise you need a bed the TIC will be closed and you will simply use your phone to hook up with a B&B, Travelodge, etc.

I didn't think we had a tourist office any more! It was on the Wharf but it and the museum are shut for the duration. So I looked up this and got a welcoming picture of a shuttered door with no signage. So who who'd have thought we've got one? Not me. And I live here!

[CharlieF]

I remember it being on the wharf, but apparently it is now in the town hall.

Hey, nice grit bin.

Scrolled down a bit more and saw Mr Kirby got there before me...

[Richard Garvie]

Are you confusing tourist information with the team based at Shaw House? Or have they been merged?