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07
Jan 2021
Harrogate council to spend £165,000 on tourism website
Harrogate Borough Council has said it will spend £165,000 revamping its tourism website Visit Harrogate — after previously refusing to reveal the sum.
The council awarded the contract two months ago to a company from Ipswich in a private meeting without undertaking a competitive tender process.
It told the Stray Ferret at the time that coronavirus had created an "economic crisis" that forced it to bypass competitive tendering.
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A report prepared for the meeting said it would take six months for a “full procurement process” and the site needed to be ready for the 2021 tourist season.
The council acquired the Visit Harrogate site last year.
The authority believes the site has suffered from “historic underinvestment” and “visually no longer meets the user requirements or expectations”.
Jacob Bailey Group won the four-year contract to create what the council called a new destination management system.
Yesterday the council revealed the £165,000 sum in response to a question on Twitter.
A council spokesperson told the Stray Ferret:
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