Grant Funding Of Tourism Business
I’m applying for a grant to assist me to set up a new arm of the Wales Outdoors empire. First Aid Training with a focus on Mountain First Aid. But I don’t think I should be eligible. For two reasons. One, it’s a business development and two, there are plenty offering the same. The Welsh Government have undertaken no impact assessment of existing businesses and why should the government in any instance subsidise a punt by a small business? On the other hand, I do think I ought to be eligible. It is the case that the most marginalised group in our society, the poorest performing, the most at risk, are working-class white boys and men. And I’m 58. re-training at my age surely is not only a thing to be applauded but a thing to be supported. The following is taken from the grant application form and shockingly, given the facts in the matter, the white male demographic is nowhere to be seen…
Should commercial businesses be able to draw down local, national or European funding to develop or sustain their income?
I believe that there has been an unacceptable distribution of national wealth in pursuance of a half-baked dream of a nation of small business people. As funding became available for website construction, marketing initiatives and fixed assets, small businesses proliferated and were funded by taxpayer money. Should this expenditure have come from the public coffers or the business owners themselves?
There should be no subsidy for any commercial business. Farmers should not get any cash, car manufacturers should not receive millions to relocate to Coventry or similar and tourism businesses should not be offered grants for websites and building renovations.
If a business is well run and viable there will be enough money to re-invest. If not, the hard fact is that the business will and should fail. No amount of funding will, in the long term, support an ill-managed business venture.
Where are the ethics in using taxpayers’ money, the majority of whom will never aspire to owning a business and are slaves to the minimum or living wage, to support private business ventures.
This feeding of business has dreadful effects on world and local economies…. Take farming for instance……
For how long have farmers been receiving public money whilst refusing to open up land for public access? I think that if we pay farmers because they own land or sheep then that land becomes our land and the farmer becomes the 'caretaker'. If farms are unsustainable then they should become public, not floated with state tax with no long term public gain.
Hard Facts
Subsidies from the EU encourage farmers in the developed world to overproduce
This excess produce is then sold on the world markets and dumped on the developing world at super cheap prices, which leaves local farmers in that country unable to compete
In 2018 UK farmers received 3.5 Billion in subsidy
The EU spend 60 Billion a year on farm subsidies
On average, subsidies for small farms make up 78% of profits, on medium concerns, about 61% and on the largest farms, around 46%.
Every day, a European cow gets more in subsidies (approx US$2.20) than 1.2 billion of the world’s poor have to live on.
I am familiar with the argument that without the sheep and the farmers, the landscape would be dramatically altered and much land that we have access to now would become wooded and difficult to walk through. I think that this would be a good thing. A natural woody landscape with paths winding through it would be enticing to many.
The government do not pay me an income because I have a business. Staff rely on me to find them work as is the case with any business proprietor. Should I get a subsidy in the winter as there are few bookings at this time? If I wanted to relocate to Devon, taking my staff with me, would we all be paid to do so?
I have received grants in the past, some funding for staff training and a small sum to assist with the purchase of kit after the foot and mouth fiasco - farmers locally did very well out of that display of government ineptitude whilst blocking tourism's attempts to maintain an income throughout the period of the grossly exaggerated by the criminally foolish Professor Neil Ferguson infections.
It amazes me that groups of providers can apply for funding to develop a website and then, more often than not, do nothing with it. Far better for the group to pay for their own hosting and to maintain the site themselves. I can purchase and maintain a site for approximately £100 per year..... Where does all of the money go for the prestigious campaigns? In 2006 the South West Wales marketing campaign has a budget of 1/4 million per year to maintain the three websites, keep them high up in search engine results and to run periodical direct e-mail and postal bulletins. As this is all web-based apart from a few paper mail shots – where does the money go? I asked the question but guess what? They refused to answer.
Here is an example of ineptitude and waste… Gower Watersports Association website, recently removed from its hosting, was funded by the WDA in 2003. Until August 2006 it was still a place that you could be directed to by search engines. It was dead in the water with nothing happening with it. The members all still exist.
The site was quite well-designed and it had some good features that someone with a day or two could really make something of. I called the Welsh Assembly offices who now deal with WDA matters and asked: what were the criteria for funding the site, who could join the site and, as it was not being developed, would they be asking for the funding back?
The Welsh Assembly could not answer any of the questions. Firstly I could not get through to the correct department and then I was told they would get back to me and they did not and then they could not find any records relating to the site. The bureaucracy drives me mad and if I ever decided that I wanted to go for funding it is this that would stop me! Kafka knew what he was writing about!
Let’s see an end, both national and international, to the economy being manipulated by pressure groups and funny handshakes.
