To respond to the Community Services scrutiny review of tourism.

The Cabinet Member Economic Development and Community Services presented the report to Cabinet advising that the report needed to be deferred to another meeting of Cabinet as since the review was carried out in April 2008 there had been a transfer of responsibilities between the directorates relating to the tourism function and the report findings were now out of date. 

The Cabinet Member stated it was important that an effective tourism service was maintained, however, there were considerable costs involved and particularly in the light of the current economic climate he felt that a deferral of the proposal was required and that a revised report needed to be brought to Cabinet.  The Leader advised Cabinet that Advantage West Midlands (AWM) had since given notice that a considerable amount of their funding would no longer be available, which would impact on the contributions made to support tourism in Herefordshire.

RESOLVED

                        THAT:

                                       a)      the report be noted; and

                                       b)      any agreement on the recommendations outlined in Appendix 1 be deferred for a further report to Cabinet.