MORECAMBE has come under fire again from a national travel commentator.

Daily Mail travel editor Frank Barratt compared tourism officer Ron Sands to King Canute as he slammed the resort for trying to compete with foreign package holidays rather than finding a new market.

He said: "Over the last 30 years generations of children have grown up not knowing what our seaside is all about.

"They only know places like Torremolinos and Magaluf. They've no concept of what it's like to paddle, eat candyfloss and all that."

Mr Barratt was speaking on Radio 4's You and Yours programme last Friday, just a week after Big Breakfast reporter Richard Bacon mocked the town in front of millions of viewers.

He also called for the resort to tempt the middle classes with high quality seafood restaurants and forget the seven and 14-day package holidays of the past.

Mr Sands, also appearing on the programme, claimed the resort was winning back visitors with initiatives like the RSPB's children's events and the proposed redevelopment of the Frontierland site by Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Morrison's supermarkets.

Speaking after the broadcast, tourism committee chairman Cllr June Ashworth said: "I thought the programme portrayed Morecambe in a good light. There was praise for the improvements in Happy Mount Park, appreciation of the long, level promenade and the views across the bay."