Gordon Highlights Hotelier Concerns
Gordon has said the Council’s Draft Core Strategy won’t work as currently drafted and has criticised its detailed plans to take hoteliers and accommodation providers in the town centre and South Shore out of the holiday area.
Gordon has met with Helen France, the Council officer overseeing the strategy and highlighted the concerns he’s received from local hoteliers about this and the lack of detailed information about the consultation process and meetings.
Gordon said, “ People who’ve put time, money and effort into upgrading their properties for visitors must not be left behind through arbitrary decisions to take them out of the holiday area. Turning hotels – deregistered or otherwise – into ‘family homes’ will not solve the problems of poor quality HMOs, only potentially create more. We need smaller high-quality units which can then be linked to a proper integrated skills and employment strategy for town centre areas. On top of this the core strategy needs urgently to revitalise parts of South Shore such as the roads heading off the Prom and the area around Bond Street/lower Waterloo Road where vacant properties and uncertain signage and road access underline the crisis there.”
‘I will be working with accommodation providers to make sure the Council hears their views and also thinks positively at how new developments affect the original survey’s detailed proposals drawn up – in late 2008 and by an outside company with little local knowledge. The possibilities to build visitor numbers - now Blackpool FC are in the Premier League - around South Shore with a revitalised Blackpool South station are among these.’ For details of the Council’s consultation meetings go to www.blackpool.gov.uk
