§ 15. Mr. Gordon Marsden (Blackpool, South)What steps his Department is taking to obtain the views of tourism organisations in British seaside resorts. [128211]
§ The Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting (Janet Anderson)My officials and I have regular contact with local authorities and business partnerships from seaside resorts, and with organisations such as the British Resorts Association, in which my hon. Friend plays a leading role. Let me say how pleased I was to attend the association's annual meeting both this year and last.
§ Mr. MarsdenMy hon. Friend is zealous in defending within the Government the interests of seaside towns. I hope that she will have time to visit seaside towns and talk to local hoteliers this summer and that she will listen to the concerns that many of them have about assisted area status grants for tourism under tier 3, and relay those concerns to her colleagues in the Department of Trade and Industry. Will she also raise the issue of lottery grants for seaside towns, given the recent reports that they have not been getting their fair share?
§ Janet AndersonI remind my hon. Friend that when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State published his report on lottery funding for former coalfield areas, Sheffield Hallam university, which undertook the research, said:
Similar targets should be applied to other areas where the level of Lottery funding activity has been well below the national average. This might include resort and retirement towns, and mixed urban/rural areas outside the coalfields.We shall continue to look at that very closely. I reassure him that I will visit his constituency on the first day of the seaside town tour that my right hon. Friend and I will undertake at the beginning of the summer recess, and that I have fixed a meeting with my right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade on the other matter that he raised.