A plan to send in consultants to spruce up Bowness and Windermere has met with a cool response from local councillors.
Windermere Parish Council was told that Cumbria Tourist Board will be using £30,000 of North West Development Agency cash to produce an “enhancement masterplan” for the two tourism centres.
But rather than jumping for joy, report-weary councillors suggested CTB would be better off consulting the numerous documents that were already lining the shelves including the recent Bowness and Windermere Art Initiative.
“Why not go and open the stack of reports that have been written and talk to local people, you could build something from them,” said county and parish councillor Joan Stocker, who complained that every initiative felt the need to ‘discover’ for itself what was already known.
In response, Cumbria County Council area support manager Stuart Pate, who had been sent to propose the plan to the parish, said Spawforth Associates, the Leeds-based consultants who have been hired to do the work, would see what else had been written to avoid “re-inventing the wheel”.
He explained that the report was part of NWDA’s ‘Lake District Renaissance’ vision to make the Lake District National Park the nation’s premier rural tourist destination by improving the marketing of the area alongside the quality of its tourism facilities/businesses and public space.
It was conceived partly in response to a 2002 CTB-commissioned survey of 3,000 people that concluded that the Lake District was perceived as having a ‘faded appearance’. Regeneration cash has since been flowing into the region including a pledge for £4 million over four years to market the area.
This latest study will: l Look for a spot to create a new Youth Hostel for Windermere.
l Find ways to improve ‘gateways’ into Windermere and Bowness including the railway station and road entrances - this will encompass proposals for improved car parking and coach parking management.
l Come up with a ‘palate’ of materials, styles, street furniture and public art to enhance the distinctiveness and look of the towns.
l Provide an urban design strategy to guide future development.
l Deliver ‘an implementation strategy’ listing possible sources of funding to deliver their vision and setting out a timetable for regeneration.
The consultancy team is due to arrive in the area any day now and is expected to present its final conclusions on March 1, 2004.
Coun Jennifer Jewell felt their attentions should be immediately turned to Bowness, a spot she felt detracted from the area’s natural beauty.
“The Lake District’s image is beauty, tranquillity, perfection and then we have Bowness! That’s for another lot of people who don’t come for beauty and tranquillity. I don’t mean they shouldn’t come to Bowness but it’s tatty, it’s fish and chippy. There’s vandalism and litter – it isn’t attractive.” Whatever the consultants’ prescription for ‘enhancements’ to tempt more tourists, the CTB will have to go back to the NWDA and other authorities if it is to turn them into reality.
CTB chief executive Chris Collier said the scheme would help put the area on the map as a top tourism destination: “We are developing a bold vision for the renaissance of the Lake District. The aim is to establish Cumbria – the Lake District as the UK’s premier rural tourism destination.”
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