MORECAMBE could lose Frontierland if the City Council fails to put its 'tourism' cards on the table claims holiday supremo Geoffrey Thompson. The theme park boss says the future of the resort's main attraction hangs the balance while uncertainty surrounds the Bubbles leisure complex and the future of Morecambe tourism in general. But in a robust defence of the council's record , Cllr Jean Yates played a trump card and exclusively revealed that three major companies were now looking to invest in the resort.

This week the Pleasure Beach boss told the Citizen: "I want to know if Bubbles will be open or not because things like this have a strong influence on any future investment decisions for this company."

"I have written to the chief executive over the last two years and have not been given any guarantees. All I get is nebulous replies. This council is not showing a lot of faith. They have practically shut down the tourism department and appear to want to close Bubbles. They have never publicly said what they see is the future for Morecambe.

"It would be a total nonsense for a hotelier or businessman to be asked to invest at the moment when the future is so uncertain. Our company makes all its executives decisions by August so if we have heard nothing positive by the end of July we will decide accordingly," and he added ominously: "You can read into that what you will.

"It's very sad. They need to make some positive public statements. If they don't it will make things very difficult."

This week many of the town's hoteliers and business people met behind closed doors to set up a committee to oppose the possible closure of Bubbles and Bubbles' boss Brian Bromiley said: "No politicians were invited and we made a lot of headway. There were representatives from 16 different organisation present and I was quite surprised at the strength of support for the complex. We've also got a 1,000 name petition."

But dismissing Mr Thompson's claims, tourism chairman, Cllr Yates, said: "We've spent £30 to £40 million in Morecambe - if that's not commitment what is? We've got 18 months to take a fresh look at the Bubbles site and see if we can attract big developers who can see its potential as a leisure complex. It's one of the best sites on the coast of England. Our dream would be to buy the Midland, get a developer to build extra bedrooms and also get them to develop the entire site as a new leisure complex." She also revealed which blue chip companies were interested in Morecambe: "Stakis Hotels are looking at the Midland, Apollo are looking at the Winter Gardens and Rank has taken up a lease on part of the Empire complex. We're not saying Bubbles will close but we do need to be looking at making Morecambe a resort for the 21st century."

Leisure boss Geoffrey Thompson

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