CALLS have been made for Barry Town Council to take greater control over promoting tourism in the area.

Plaid Cymru councillors want Barry Town Council to take an active role in improving tourism and looking after the Holton Road and High Street shopping centres.

They also suggested that Barry Town Council works closer with voluntary and community organisations, building on the council’s current successful grants schemes.

Plaid Cymru councillors Ian Johnson and Shirley Hodges made the recommendations in last week’s Town Council budget meeting, noting that the council’s corporate events and advertising budgets regularly underspend by tens of thousands of pounds each year.

The Plaid Cymru councillors argued that it would be better to use that money to promote Barry rather than go into the council’s bank account as reserves.

Barry Town Council's Plaid Cymru group leader Shirley Hodges said: "As Barry Town Council is focused only on Barry, we think that dedicated officers for the town can do a better job than being stretched trying to cover the whole Vale.

“I recently saw a tourist poster outside Barry train station advertising the long closed Eze bar at the Barry Hotel, the knocked-down Theatre Royal cinema and our brand new Morrisons supermarket. It must have been more than a decade old.

“The people of Barry love this town, and Plaid Cymru would much rather see taxpayers’ money go to promote Barry than end up in the council’s bank account doing nothing.”

Fellow Plaid Cymru councillor Ian Johnson said: “We want Barry Town Council to be more ambitious in how it promotes Barry and how it helps community organisations.

“At the moment, the Vale’s town centre development officer has to look after five different centres in the Vale, including Barry’s Holton Road and the High Street.

“Just think how much more effective they could be if that job was just to develop business in Barry - whether it be on the Island, Holton Road, High Street or the Waterfront.

“We could then have an economic plan that links Barry together to create better jobs and treats Barry as one community, pulling together.

“When we looked at different budget headings, we saw that the corporate events and advertising budgets regularly spend less than expected, so the money is already there, it just needs to be better spent.

“Plaid Cymru also recommended that Barry Town Council work together with the voluntary sector, with VCVS and VVB, to help smaller community organisations get hold of grants and improve their facilities and what they offer to the public, building on the good work of our Small Grants and New Initiatives that are so successful.”