COUNCILLORS have voted in favour of spending £7,400 on promoting Wellington in the hope of getting more people to visit the town.

Members of Wellington Town Council met on Monday (April 7) where they discussed a recommendation from the authority’s economic development committee to get involved with the Visit Somerset organisation - which is run by the Somerset Tourism Association.

The association helps to advertise the county as a destination for holidays, short breaks and day visits via online, social media, conferences and newsletters.

It is hoped that going for the £7,400 gold package would mean more coverage for Wellington on the Visit Somerset website and result in more people coming to the town and a boost for the local economy.

But not all councillors were convinced that that predicted vision would actually become a reality.

Cllr Justin Cole said: “It’s quite a lot of money, but there is no plan. I’m not against spending money on the promotion of Wellington, but there needs to be more meat on the bones of this.

“I’m not against this and I don’t want to be negative, but there’d be a lot of work involved in producing content for the website.

Cllr John Thorne, a supporter of the Visit Somerset proposals, said: “The Visit Somerset website has lots of information about what to do in Yeovil and what to do in Taunton – so we’d be joining the club. This is all about the town council wanting to make the town better.”

Cllr Keith Wheatley said going for the top package would entitle the council to more support from Visit Somerset chairman Giles Adams.

But the Mayor of Wellington, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said she remained “totally against” spending money on the project.

“I can’t see how spending £7,400 will get any more people here,” she said.

Cllr Cole added: “The principle of promoting the town is right. I don’t think it’s actually that big a sum of money either, but it just needs to be spent in the right way.”

Cllr Marcus Barr was also of the opinion that the promotion of Wellington could be done in-house by the town council on its own social media platforms such as its website and Facebook page.

But councillors voted in favour of supporting the recommendation to spend £7,400 on working alongside Visit Somerset.

The Mayor was extremely critical of the plan when the council’s economic development committee spoke about the idea last month.

She described the £7,400 as an “eye-watering” amount of money to spend on promoting Wellington when there was not a lot to promote to potential visitors.

“I thought this was more for promoting hotels and B&Bs and we haven’t really got that here,” she said. “I don’t think we can use this to the full extent.”

And she added: “I suppose we’ve got a Wetherspoons pub, but so has Taunton, Timbuktu and everywhere else.

“If we want people to mooch about in the town, I just can’t see it happening because we haven’t got the attractions.”