Option 1: A single policy

Support

Representation ID: 2408

Received: 02/04/2012

Support Option 1 for simplicity/consistency.

Comment

Representation ID: 3325

Received: 25/04/2012

Bourne Leisure fully endorses the following recognition at paragraph 6.49 of the emerging Development Management Plan that:

"Tourism is a major contributor to the economy and vibrancy of Hastings".

Bourne Leisure therefore supports Option 2, which suggests the need for a number of separate policies to deal with different aspects of tourism, whilst promoting tourism in the Borough overall.

Our client considers that it is vitally important to include in the Development Management document a separate and detailed policy/ policies on boosting tourism and the visitor economy, to strengthen the local economy in turn. These policies should specifically support development proposals that will help to achieve the enhancement of the Borough's tourism offer and the extension of the visitor season. Such an approach would be consistent with recent policy guidance set out in the Hastings Visitor Accommodation SPD (March 2011), which recognises that the tourist industry is an important component of the local economy in Hastings, contributing 5211m to the local economy and supporting an estimated 4,850 jobs (paragraph 1). Paragraph 2 of the SPD also recognises that staying visitors are a particularly important element of the tourist economy, whilst paragraph 3 states that, "the provision of new visitor accommodation and the maintenance and, where necessary, improvement of existing accommodation are therefore of key importance to the town".