Town hall didn't ask for point

QUESTIONS have been raised over the criteria used to select the location of the town's new Tourist Information Point.

Glenda Ruddell owner of Lavender Lane applied to host the information point for tourists at her business premises in Gardiner's Court.

Her business along with Mount Zion House, High Street Harvest and Lurgan Forward lost out in the tendering process to the council owned town hall - which had not submitted an application..

The new TIP was installed in the town hall at the beginning of the month (January).

Mrs Ruddell said two of the requirements to be eligible for the provision of the tourist information point (TIP) were the availability of staff with local knowledge to man the stand and a computer to assist enquiries.

She said: "It would appear that the town hall, while it has many things in its favour, does not meet these basic requirements and it seems strange that a venue which did not originally tender for the TIP was awarded it.

"Has there been a different criteria set to that which was originally set?"

According to the council's official minutes from September the town hall was selected as one of the best locations to increase visitor numbers by an independent consultant. Following a tendering process the town hall did not lodge an expression of interest.

However, council resolved to contact the town hall along with the library and the Post Office about their apparent lack of interest as they were deemed ideal locations.

Officials from Lurgan Town Hall informed the council they had failed to return the expression of interest because of staff leave over the summer period.

The other two locations asked not to be considered.

A spokeswoman for the council told the 'MAIL': "Lurgan Town Hall was deemed the most appropriate location for a number of reasons including - it is ideally positioned to be a tourist information point, it is a listed building with a high number of users, it has extensive opening hours, is Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant and the TIP has the potential to develop the town hall as a key orientation point for Lurgan.

"Although Lavender Lane had many good merits including staff availability with excellent tourism knowledge, on-street parking at the front of the shop and gift shops nearby, the location they were proposing for the TIP was too small and situated between two shops which was not ideal for display, visitor browsing and circulation.

"Also, the entrance to the location they were proposing was not DDA compliant.”

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