Heritage can be used to rebuild region - The Yorkshire Post says

It is sometimes easy to overlook just how compelling and enchanting a story we have to tell about Yorkshire’s heritage, simply because the region’s residents live with it every day, whether in the towns and cities or in the countryside.

But our heritage is, without doubt, worth shouting about and the plan by the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Historic England to capitalise upon it deserves to be warmly welcomed and wholeheartedly supported.

As it rightly points out, there is huge potential to generate greater income from heritage, which already provides 40,000 jobs and brings in £2bn to the regional economy.

This holds out the prospect of strengthening the region’s recovery from the damage wrought by the pandemic, by attracting more visitors. One of the most welcome aspects of the plan is that whilst it initially focuses on North Yorkshire, it provides a blueprint for the whole of the north of England.

Promoting heritage taps in to the growing enthusiasm for holidays in Britain and its historic sites, so there is a clear opportunity here to develop this tourism market still further.

Imaginative new ideas are key to the plan’s success and there is no shortage of eye-catching proposals, such as making Bridlington into the northern equivalent of London’s Billingsgate fish market.

Yorkshire is rightly proud of its rich heritage and only too willing to share it with visitors.

What makes this new plan so appealing is that by doing just that, both our historic sites and the region’s fortunes benefit.