Councillor Keith Martin of Westport Town Council has called on Minister Michael Ring to "quash" the proposed removal of Westport's Tourist Office from it's home on Bridge Street.
Cllr Martin has labelled as "crazy" the plan to relocate the operations of Westport Labour Exchange currently on Prospect Avenue off John's Row, to the present location of the town's tourist office on James Street.
"This is bad news for Westport. Our town is a tourism town, tourism is the life blood of this town and the Tourist Office on James Street is the beating heart of our tourism industry."
"Westport Town Council, Westport Chamber of Commerce, Failte Ireland predecessors and others lobbied for years for our town to get a full time full sized tourist office and now the OPW is proposing to rob us of that in the year of the Gathering. You have to wonder about the sanity of some of those responsible for this move.
"It's crazy to move the Tourist Office from it's iconic position of more than a decade simply to facilitate the dole office. The Dole office site on Prospect Avenue should be redeveloped. There is ample room for expansion and a second storey there.
"I am astonished that this can be mooted in the constituency home town of the Minister for Tourism Deputy Michael Ring and I am calling on him now to quash this move. Minister Ring needs to protect our tourism industry by protecting our tourism office. I hope he will be speaking to the OPW immediately.
"For my part I will be raising this issue for discussion at the next meeting of Westport Town Council and will be proposing that the OPW come and meet us to discuss alternatives to this crazy, short sighted and retrograde step. I will ask our officials to examine alternatives to losing our tourist office. I am calling on all interested parties and individuals to oppose this proposal and to make their feelings clear to those responsible. I will be writing to the Westport Chamber of Commerce and the tourism bodies to seek their support for a campaign to stop this attack on our tourism industry. We must unite as a town to oppose this."
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