BE part of County Durham’s success – that was the message of a roadshow aimed at dale businesses.
The meeting, held at Enterprise House, heard how Visit County Durham (VCD) is looking to develop partnerships with businesses in Barnard Castle and Teesdale.
Sophie Hardy, communications executive at VCD, said: “By becoming a partner, Teesdale businesses would gain access to tailor-made benefits designed to help promote themselves to the tourism industry.”
VCD already works with 800 tourist businesses, supporting an income of more than £860million to the county, she added.
Ms Hardy said: “By 2020 the aim is to have £1billion of tourism-based income flowing into County Durham.”
In 2017, County Durham had 19.71 million visitors – 2.6 million of those visited Teesdale and Weardale.
Ms Hardy said: “Although this was a five per cent increase on 2016 figures, it
wasn’t all good news – 92 per cent of those visiting were day visitors and had an average spend of £20 per visitor. VCD is working hard to increase the number of overnight stays which will benefit local business.”
More tourists visit the “Vale of Durham” , Teesdale and Weardale than Durham City, the meeting heard. The Vale of Durham is an area the marketing body describes as being from Bishop Auckland to Chester le Street.
Attractions such as Beamish, The Auckland Project, Kynren and Locomotion are all proving a magnet for visitors.
But Ms Hardy said there is not enough overnight accommodation in the “Vale of Durham” and this is where Barnard Castle and Teesdale business could benefit.
Ms Hardy said: “By becoming a VCD partner we can help promote and develop local business. There is an obvious void to be filled with regard to accommodation and encouraging more overnight stays in Teesdale will have benefits for other local business.”
For further information about the Visit County Durham Partnership Scheme call 03000 261228 or email partners@visitcountydurham.
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![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
