Former Harrogate & Knaresborough Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis has called on “amateur councillors” at Harrogate Borough Council to step back from their involvement with the convention centre.
In his first interview since he left office ten years ago, Lord Willis of Knaresborough, as he is now known, told The Stray Ferret that local businesses need to have a greater say in how the “highly specialised and highly competitive” business is run — or else Harrogate’s unique vibrancy could fail.
He said:
“I’m at a loss to what the council’s about anymore. You need to have some clear direction as to what it is they want to achieve and what are the time scales, then work back from there.”
Lord Willis, who was Harrogate & Knaresborough’s MP from 1997 to 2010, still lives near York and said he has kept an eye on local politics.
He said it made “good sense” for HBC to allow the NHS use the site as a Nightingale hospital – but said there “was no long term planning to see what happens when they move out”.
He added:
“It’s that lack of looking forward that as an outsider very much worries me.
“It’s too easy to just collect the rent. In the short term it was good for the town and the NHS. But it was quite obvious, literally within a month of it opening, that it wouldn’t do any business.”
Before becoming MP, Lord Willis was the leader of HBC running a Liberal Democrat council. In 1990 when he took up the role, the conference centre was haemorrhaging money.
He estimates that two out of every three pounds of council tax that was collected at that time went to financing its debts.
During this period, Lord Willis was chair of the convention centre board and said they placed more decision making in the hands of local businessmen, including John Hardy and Richard Hanwell.
Lord Willis said they brought the dynamism required to make the convention centre a success in the 1990s.
He said:
“They were right wing in a political sense but very successful businessmen. They really influenced the way in which we had to use the conference centre. I was in awe of the way business people made it work.”
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Regarding the convention centre’s future, Lord Willis said HBC has failed to come up with a modern vision for the site.
He suggested they could be trying to target more American-style comic book, movie or videogame events.
He said:
“We’ve moved into a digital age but I don’t get the sense we’ve gone after that market.
“They are hugely popular everything from Star Wars to more niche conventions. You need people to think outside the box as to where is our next people coming from. I just don’t see that.”
Last week HBC announced it planned to spend £1.1 million on detailed design and project work for the facility, potentially leading to a major £47 million investment.
However, Lord Willis said this is only worthwhile if HBC has a sound plan, which he doubts.
He said:
“It’s not about bringing in a set of consultants, it’s about bringing key individuals who have an interest in looking at the business’s strengths and weakness.
“It’s not just money. It’s how you invest that money and recognising it might be three years before you get a return on it. That takes a lot of political selling.
“The council has already made the faux pas of getting rid of the council offices and building a new palace. That’s done nothing for the town and all it has is a semi-derelict building.
“It’s that lack of thinking ahead.
The Stray Ferret has asked current Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones for his thoughts on the future of the convention centre but he has so far declined to comment.
Tomorrow The Stray Ferret will publish part two of our interview with Lord Willis, where he talks about how Harrogate town centre could be reinvigorated and whether the House of Lords should move to Yorkshire.
