PIER OWNER BACKS CAMERON’S TOURISM STANCE

Weston-super-Mare Grand Pier owner Kerry Michael has welcomed Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech on domestic tourism.

Speaking in London recently, David Cameron sought to play up the importance of the domestic tourism sector, describing it as ‘fundamental’ to the rebuilding and rebalancing of the economy.

Kerry Michael welcomed the Prime Minister’s recognition that under previous administrations there was no incentive for local authorities to encourage visitors to their destinations.

He said: “David Cameron has highlighted the very important role local authorities must play to encourage visitors to their destinations, especially in coastal resorts like ours. I believe we have been badly let down by North Somerset Council and I call on them to re-think their current strategy about investment in tourism.

“”Tourism in the West Country is worth more than £1 billion per annum and Weston-super-Mare is the largest local destination for that spend. Leaders at North Somerset Council must see the wider picture – tourism and the Grand Pier in particular is the king pin in our local economy.

Three different members of the executive have told me personally that Tourism only benefits the seafront traders so it is up to those traders to promote it and not the job of the Local Authority - they couldn’t be more wrong.

They must understand that visitors spend money all over the area and not just the seafront, they spend in our shops, in guest houses, garages in fact everywhere.

Also, those same shops and seafront traders employ people from all over the district who, without tourism, wouldn’t have jobs. So, it is naïve to suggest that tourism only benefits the seafront traders.

“We hope the appointment of John Penrose MP as Minister for Tourism will have a positive effect on Weston-super-Mare and that he will encourage his local authority colleagues to look closely at their current tourism strategy”.

David Cameron identified that, at the moment, if a local council does more to attract tourists to the area, it picks up the cost but gets none of the additional business rate revenue.

His desire is to allow local authorities to reinvest revenue made from tourism back into the local communities to help not just tourism, but all the other business sectors.


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Grand Pier rebuild back on track!

North Somerset Council and the Grand Pier Company have reached an agreement on a number of issues related to the redevelopment of the attraction.

Since last week when news first broke that there was a problem, the two sides have met every day and negotiated an agreement that means the £34million project will continue in earnest.

Grand Pier co-owner, Kerry Michael said: "We are grateful to the Leader of the Council who personally took control of the negotiations. We have worked through the issues to reach a solution which is acceptable to all. Once the key decision makers were all together, we very quickly reached agreement and after that it was just a matter of putting the relevant professionals together to formalise the agreement.

“All we want to do is to get on with the re-building of the Grand Pier, a project which we hope will be the catalyst for the continuing regeneration of the town."

Cllr Nigel Ashton, Leader of North Somerset Council, added: "Following the fire last year which destroyed the pavilion we have worked closely with the owners and will continue to offer our support to them in their efforts to re-build the attraction."

This means that work on the redevelopment of the Pier can progress as planned and on time in accordance with the original completion date of summer 2010.

North Somerset Council and the pier owners both remain fully committed to the redevelopment of this important landmark site.


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Additionally, we would like to thank everyone for the many messages of support of we have had on our Facebook page, in emails via our web site and also letters received over the last few days.

Save Our Pier!

As some of you may be aware, the Grand Pier is in a battle with North Somerset Council regarding the rebuild.

We do not think this is acceptable and we would like as many of our friends to support us by telling the council just how important it is for everyone that our Pier is rebuilt as soon as possible.

Our ambition is to build the best Pier in the world that everyone will want to visit; most importantly a place that people of Weston-super-Mare will be proud of and, in turn, will make Weston-super-Mare one of the best seaside resorts in the UK.

North Somerset Council are now preventing us from achieving our goal, due to the continuous spiralling costs they are demanding.

We now need your help to save your Pier.


An Official Statement from Kerry Michael (Grand Pier co-owner):

“To enable the new pier to open in time for the summer of 2010 we need to appoint a main contractor to build the new pavilion by the end of June. We fear that we will not be in a position to do that because of a hellish battle we are having with North Somerset Council.

The entire pier project is costing £34million and it will undoubtedly bring prosperity to Weston-super-Mare, and is crucial to the town’s future. Our aim is to build the best pier in the world and for Weston-super-Mare to be a major destination for holiday makers, day trippers and locals alike.

But a series of demands from North Somerset Council, and failure to agree terms with them as adjoining land owners have put the project in jeopardy.

Our estimate of the cost of legal fees for concluding agreement with NSC was originally £20,000, but due the continually changing position of the Council that figure has now exceeded £150,000. Additionally, we are no nearer an agreement today than we were when we started.

Despite personally reaching agreement on costs with the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council two weeks ago, they have moved the goal posts again, and have come back this week demanding we also pay for a gate in their new splash wall and for a seafront traffic light system - adding more than £100,000 to the costs. This is just not acceptable. We fear that even if we agreed to this as well, they will just keep coming back for more and more as they have been doing for months.

We are being charged rent for the beach we are using to get building materials to the pier as the pier waist is not strong enough and rent for the builders’ compound, also on the beach. The council is trying to make a profit out of this tragedy.

The Council is also asking us to pay land management and licence fees, council legal fees, and even the cost of a council employee to keep tabs on us to make sure we are doing everything properly.

North Somerset claims that it is paying half the cost of our coach stop. The truth is that we agreed to pay for whole cost ourselves - until they told us it also had to be used for deliveries, as a bus stop and in fact, anyone could use it. Instead of us building it as we originally offered, it was agreed that they would build it and we would contribute 50% to reflect the fact that it is not now going to be for our sole use. That is very different to their claims that it is paying half ‘for us’.

The perception is that North Somerset Council is bending over backwards to assist us in the re-building of the pavilion but that is not the reality. We originally feared the planning system and to their credit, planning officers dealt efficiently and diligently with our application and it was processed within the expected timescales. But trying to deal with North Somerset as adjoining land owner has been impossible.

We are desperate to re-build the Pavilion and create something that not only we but the whole town can be proud of. Despite the recession, we have pressed ahead as fast as we possibly could to deliver a World class attraction and create more than 200 jobs in the process. If the Council is demanding all these costs because they are trying to be commercial, they should look at the commercial loss to the area if our plans don’t go ahead.”

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