COLUMN: Everyone’s got to do their bit

Blimey, February upon us already, daylight is slowly but surely extending into the evenings and no doubt people are beginning to think about booking their holidays, if they haven’t done so already.

Some will be looking to spend their time at a caravan site or holiday resort in Lincolnshire and East Anglia; from where they may organise a day trip to a fairly local town or attraction.

For example the Springfields Outlet Shopping Centre and Festival Gardens; with 2.3 million visitors annually, it is currently the biggest tourist attraction in Lincolnshire.

Wouldn’t it be really good if we could attract some of those 2.3 million people to visit Spalding as well?

They say that ‘first impressions count’ and this is true of places and businesses as well as people and if we are going to encourage tourists to spend their valuable time and money in our town, then we need to ensure that it’s fit for purpose; by that I mean, that the streets are clean and tidy, not strewn with chewing gum, polystyrene food trays, beer cans and cigarette ends; business premises are clean, painted and well maintained and shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs are open for business, with warm friendly customer focused staff; easy to find parking, somewhere to be entertained and to sit and enjoy the environment.

Luckily, the overwhelming majority of our town centre businesses are managed and staffed by dedicated people who already offer a high standard of service, those few businesses that don’t, will know who they are and will hopefully strive to improve; unfortunately local government budgets don’t allow for 24-hour street cleaning, therefore the cleanliness of our streets is partly down to us!

So why should we be interested in tourism?

Well it’s very simple!

Tourism brings additional people into the town and those people spend money in our shops, pubs and restaurants and this allows businesses to survive, upgrade their offer and to continue to employ local people; it also means that the businesses in the town will remain there for the people of Spalding and, it will provide the justification for Government grants to upgrade the town’s infrastructure and environment.

Tourism is everybody’s business and we all have a responsibility to ensure that the first impression for visitors to our town, is good!

A monthly column by Spalding town centre manager Dennis Hannant