ELY - promoted as the Gem of the Fens - has been attacked for having little to recommend it other than the magnificent Cathedral.

"Run-down hotels jostle with unexciting lingerie shops" and Ely is upstaged by the prettier towns of Chatteris and Wisbech, a first-time visitor remarked.

He also severely criticised the 15th century Lamb Hotel, claiming it is a "musty, dusty establishment, badly in need of a face-lift."

The city took a pounding in two national newspapers in the same week that its former tourism officer accused council chiefs of "stalling tourism" and allowing projects to run down.

Alison Smith claimed council chiefs had put tourism on hold while scrutinising services to make sure they are getting best value for money. She said:
"If we are trying to promote Ely as the Gem of the Fens what is the point of penny pinching when there is so much to do? They are missing the point of the whole thing. I was always told we couldn't do anything until the Best Value Review was complete. I felt I was banging my head against brick walls".
"Ely needs a drip feed of marketing. You can't start and stop. You can't just stop tourism in its tracks. I think it has been stalled."

She claimed projects such as the Eel Trail, tourism finger posts, interpretation panels for Jubilee Gardens and the new shoppers' guide were "woefully overdue" and the basic work that held it all together has gone.

Freelance journalist, Max Davidson, who visited Ely for an article about novelist, PD James, was equally critical of the city.

He said in The Daily Telegraph:
"Modern Ely, once you have stopped admiring the Norman cathedral rising sublimely above the fens, is a disappointment, with little to recommend it. Run-down hotels jostle with unexciting-looking lingerie shops.
The fenland landscape is as bleak as ever, relieved only by the odd windmill. Remoter areas, with odd-sounding addresses like Sprogg's Cottage, Sprogg's Green, are screaming for a murder to be committed."

Mr Davidson's article in the Daily Mail about the Lamb Hotel said:
"My rust-ringed bath looked as if it has been around since the 15th Century. The hot water came out at such a trickle that it was like watching paint dry."

He told the Standard:
"Ely has a stunning cathedral but not much atmosphere. It's a bit soulless. It's a victim of its location, between the more cosmopolitan areas of Cambridge and Norwich, and its lack of success. It seems terribly under-provided for. I whizzed round the museum. It was all right but not something to travel a long way for."

Lamb Hotel deputy manager Emma Bennett, said:
"The hotel is in need of refurbishment but inside we keep it as up-to-date as we can. We have a number of rooms we keep until the last minute to sell and we offer reduced rates on them. Unfortunately this gentleman stayed in one of them. Being an old hotel we occasionally have problems with the water pressure. We are confident when the refurbishment takes place the Lamb Hotel will be an excellent place to stay."

Ely's mayor Shirley Overall plans to write a reply to Mr Davidson defending the city. She said:
"I don't think we have stopped promoting Ely. I am really doing my bit. It is a beautiful city from any angle. The Eel Trail is happening and, although there doesn't seem much making the headlines, there is a lot going on. But there is always more that can be done."

East Cambridgshire District Council leader Cllr. Valerie Leake said;
"Many exciting new tourism initiatives were being developed aimed at helping to keep the district as a top tourist destination. Tourism is by far East Cambs' biggest industry, bringing in over £53 million to the district last year...
Being such an important revenue earner, we continue to strongly support tourism, and there has been absolutely no reduction this year in the funding we have put into promoting it. In fact, East Cambridgeshire spends more on encouraging tourism than most other rural councils."

She added it is estimated there were still two million visitors to the district last year, and that, so far, visitor numbers this year were showing an increase.

The council also claimed that:

• Two new guides for visitors on finding accommodation and places to visit in East Cambs have been published this year.
  
  
• Financial support has also been increased for the district's museums, while extra money is going to provide new tourist interpretation boards.
  
  
• The Eel Trail is soon to be created aimed at guiding visitors to parts of the city which previously have not been on the tourist route and ambitious ideas are being put forward to make Ely's riverside area a premier tourist attraction, with a big conference being planned for next year to create a future vision for the riverside.
  
  
• Ely's Tourist Information Office has won an East of England Tourist Board award, while a Destination Benchmarking survey carried out in Ely last year revealed visitors were very satisfied with the quality of the tourism service and facilities in the city, which were regarded as being better than most other historic cities in Britain.
  
  Cllr Leake added: "We recognise the value of tourism and we will continue to make its promotion one of our priorities."
  

ELY COUNCIL - www.eastcambs.gov.uk