Agenda item

Present:- Councillor Boyes (in the Chair); Councillors Hall and Walker.

160(13) 

Apologies for Absence.

Apologies for absence were received from:-

160(14) 

Minutes of the previous meeting

Agreed:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Tourism Panel, held on Monday, 19^th July, 2004, be approved as a correct record.

160(15) 

Tourism Officer's Update

The Town Centre, Tourism and Markets Manager gave a verbal update on the following issues:-

(a) Dawn Runciman - Events and Promotions Officer

The Tourism Panel welcomed Dawn Runciman to her first meeting. Dawn reported on the various seasonal events which were currently taking place in the Rotherham town centre, including animatronics, ice sculpture, reindeer, a snow machine, a giant snowman with bouncy castle and Winter wonderland.

(b) Annual Events Plan

Discussions were currently taking place between the Council, its partner organisations and many voluntary organisations, in order to prepare an annual plan of events which would take place in the Rotherham Borough area. It was important to ensure that the many different events did not coincide on the same dates. It was intended that the Plan would take account of events taking place on a County-wide basis.

The Tourism Panel noted that Dawn Runciman would be preparing an annual events plan for the Town Centre, Tourism and Markets Team and this plan would support the overarching plan produced by Education, Culture and Leisure Services.

(c) Events arranged for 2005

The following events had been arranged to take place during 2005:-

- Ice Magic ice rink (with “strictly ice skating” event), from 12^th to 19^th February, 2005;

- Continental Market, during May, 2005 (dates to be confirmed);

- Rotherham Walking Festival, 2^nd to 17^th July, 2005;

- Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show at TattonPark, from 20^th to 24^th July, 2005;

- Rotherham by the Sea, 15^th to 27^th August, 2005.

It was suggested that Arts funding might be sought to finance part of the costs of these events.

The Tourism Panel agreed that a suggestion to arrange an event in commemoration of the 60^th Anniversary of VE Day should be the subject of further discussion.

(d) Staffing Issues

The Tourism Panel was informed that a number of town centre staff had suffered verbal abuse from members of the public and certain town centre traders. Members of the Tourism Panel expressed their support for all local authority employees working in the town centre and asked to be informed of progress towards the resolution of the issues now reported.

(e) Appointment of Tourism Manager

The Tourism Panel was informed of the appointment of Joanne Edley to the post of Tourism Manager, with effect from 5^th January, 2005. One of Joanne’s first duties would be to establish a Task Group to prepare the draft Tourism Plan.

160(16) 

South Yorkshire Tourism Manager's Update

The Tourism Panel welcomed the South Yorkshire Tourism Manager, Caroline Wilson, to the meeting.

Caroline reported that the consultants, KPMG, had been commissioned to prepare a vision of tourism potential in South Yorkshire for the next decade. This exercise involved a considerable amount of consultation work with public and private sector organisations. It was intended that the initial three-year marketing plan would be completed during January, 2005. KPMG would examine the costs, strengths and weaknesses of the three alternative options for the delivery of this tourism vision: using either the existing capacity of an organisation; or an existing organisation with increased capacity (eg: Business Link South Yorkshire); or establishing a new organisation to deliver the vision. The process would be largely private sector driven.

The chosen option would be reported at a workshop to be held during January, 2005.

It was also noted that a Task Group was currently preparing a South Yorkshire Tourism Action Plan.

Progress would be reported at the next meeting.

160(17) 

Any Other Business

(1) The RobinHood Sheffield-DoncasterAirport

The Tourism Panel noted that the first outbound flights would take off from the new Robin Hood Sheffield-Doncaster airport, Finningley, on 28^th April, 2005. Five aircraft would be based at the new airport, which would initially be operating flights to eleven destinations for business travel, as well as nineteen destinations for leisure journeys. Negotiations, which might take a long time to complete, were taking place in respect of the possible operation of long haul flights from this airport.

The Tourism Panel acknowledged the importance of inbound journeys to this airport bringing business and leisure travellers to the South Yorkshire sub-region.

(2) Tourism Forum – November, 2004

The recent meeting of the Tourism Forum, held at the Hellaby Hall hotel, had been very well attended.

(3) Local Government Association – Tourism Forum

It was reported that Councillor Sheila Walker had been appointed to the Tourism Forum of the Local Government Association.

160(18) 

Date, Time and Venue for the next meeting

Agreed:- That the next meeting of the Tourism Panel be held at the Town Hall, Rotherham on Monday, 7^th February, 2005, commencing at 2.00 p.m.