Town Council risks losing Woofstock festival!

At last nights Town Council meeting the mayor avoided a discussion on the future of Woofstock on Coronation Park by deferring the decision to South Hams District Council, the current owners. He stated that the Town Council would honour any bookings taken by SHDC but did not indicate if Dartmouth Town Councillors support the future use of Coronation Park by the Woofstock festival.

Councillors debating Woofstock

If you wish to see the full recording of the Council meeting click on this photo.

This leaves the organisers with a difficult decision regarding the location of the festival next year. Dartmouth is the ideal location she believes but the uncertainty now makes Woofstock’s future here uncertain. Heather stated on Facebook:

“Hi everyone just to clear up any confusion District have supported us they currently own the land. Dartmouth Town Council showed no support bar one Cllr and Mayor said they would honour us being in Dartmouth 2018 once they own the land. They legally have to however once they own we will probably have to move from 2019 onwards. So our dilemma is do we stay and then have to start again somewhere else or do we go now and secure somewhere for years to come.”

A difficult decision for Heather which could have been avoided with a simple vote at last nights Council meeting.

We hope Heather decides to stay in Dartmouth as the Festival was well organised and the promotion of the event in Dartmouth was an object lesson in marketing for many Dartmouth organisations. The festival resulted in a 6.2% increase in town footfall for the week with many visitors to the one day event staying for the week. In contrast you will remember that the regatta resulted in a 12% drop in footfall in the retail areas of town.

 

1 Comment

  1. There seem to be numerous comments about the TIC. My observation is that the TIC is a vital organisation to drive the Tourist economy of our Town. However it concerns me that a vital marketing organisation seems to lack Marketing expertise amongst its Directors

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