Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Penrose and Neil Carmichael

Thursday 15th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

T5. In my constituency, we are busy pioneering the “Stroud Special” train, which is designed to take up the slack on the route from London and to encourage people to come and benefit from Stroud’s hugely impressive environment, pubs and all the rest. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is a good initiative, which certainly justifies infrastructure expenditure?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (John Penrose)]

Of course, we encourage any organisation—any local tourism body—to lay on the kind of facilities and product offerings that my hon. Friend describes. It is absolutely essential that we secure better local marketing and ownership of the local tourism visiting experience, and I am glad to hear that Stroud is leading the way.