Lesley Ure – Changes that would be good for Gosport

I think what would be good with Gosport , perhaps Restaurants. There is money to spend in Gosport. People have money to spend in Gosport.

I think that you know maybe doing something with the Front of the Town, so we do see places that I say are nice to go in Gosport, people are going to them, they are spending, so I don’t know why we can’t have more than that so perhaps our habits have changed in terms of our shopping habits which we’re seeing everywhere but Gosport is a really attractive … it’s an attractive place to live.

I mean there are far worst places to stay and I think that by making the Town a nice place to sit, a nice place to perhaps have a drink, have a bite to eat, I think that’s probably the direction. And also, really shout about it’s historical value and presence.

There aren’t many areas that have that massive level of history. I just think if we brought more ‘lets look at Gosport differently from what it used to be, let’s look at it as a place for tourism.’

You know have things around, have it a place where people want to go because we’re never going to be able to go back to where we were. We’re never going to have the Armed Forces presence here that we had before.

That’s gone, that’s changed and like many areas that have changed because with industry so we mentioned the closure of the Dock Yards, when you think about coal miners, things like that, there are so many areas that have changed so you’ve just got to adapt and I think that Gosport needs to shout more about its history and what it’s known for and people need to be proud of their place within that and they way that they’ve shaped Gosport. I think that’s really what can bring that connection back again really.