Minister backs
tourism plans

by Emily Flanagan

AMBITIOUS plans to transform Carnforth into the gate-way of the Lake District have won support from the government's tourism minister Janet Anderson.
She joined officials from all over Lancashire and Cumbria who gathered in Carnforth last Friday to talk about revolutionary plans for the market town.

Tourists

Proposals to encourage millions of tourists who visit the Lakes every year to use trains from Carnforth station were presented to Mrs Anderson when she visited the setting of the acclaimed film, Brief Encounter.
Mrs Anderson was invited to the station by Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Geraldine Smith to see Carnforth Railway Trust's plans.
Tourism bosses from Cumbria and Lancashire told the Minister that the idea is for Carnforth Station to be the lynchpin of the scheme and Harold Tonge, consultant for the engineering company AMEC, revealed how trains from Carnforth would take tourists along Cumbria's coastal route and away from the congested areas.
He said: "We want to change people's perception of Carnforth. One third of people visiting Windermere . come from Lancashire by car.
"The idea at the moment is to get them out of cars." 
Mr Tonge said getting people to break their journey at Carnforth and take the train would also mean a proportion of the 15 million visitors to the Lake District would spend between an hour and half an hour in Carnforth.
At Carnforth, Cumbria's and Yorkshire's railways and the M6 all meet, making it an ideal place for people to begin their journey to the Lakes by train.
The meeting heard how the next step is a feasibility study costing about �35,000 but Mrs Anderson warned funding would not be easily available if the North West Tourist Board did not get more involved."
She said: "This money is given to innovative ideas for tourism. If regional tourist boards don't get involved they don't get anything."
Afterwards Mrs Anderson told the Guardian the plans are a fine example of what the government is trying to encourage.
She said: "I hope the scheme will rejuvenate Carnforth Station and turn it into a tourist attraction and enlarge it.
"I'm going to be working with Geraldine to see what we can do to take the project further.
"The presentation for transport is the perfect example of what the government want to encourage and we're going to speak to the minister for transport to let him know this work is going on."

Minister backs tourism plans, Lancaster Guardian 1 ^st October 1999

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