News Sobriety Project deserves signs
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A county councillor has called for more signs to be erected around Goole to flag up the town's 'little oasis' - the Sobriety Project.
Councillor Caroline Fox wants signs to be erected at the Rawcliffe Road approach to the town to attract more people to the popular tourist spot.
There are currently just four easy-to-miss signs directing people to the Sobriety Project, a registered charity which arranges group and school visits to the Yorkshire Waterways Museum and Adventure Centre, as well as boat trips around Goole docks.
The project is thriving and attracts upwards of 16,000 visitors a year - but Cllr Fox said more should be done to boost numbers still further.
"I'd like to see more signage for the Sobriety Project on Rawcliffe Road, when people are coming into Goole, because it's a little oasis," said Cllr Fox. "Goole has been neglected over the years and it needs a bit of life bringing to it.
"We have got all this in Goole and we don't really advertise it; it seems a bit sad, really. We have got to sell Goole the best way we can."
As well as running its own, self-sustained museum - which, because it is independent, does not receive Government funding - the charity provides hire boats for conferences and parties. It also runs a tea shop on the site and its boat trips come with a running commentary explaining the history of the port of Goole, the lives of the barge people of yore, and the transportation of coal.
It also has a residential barge, a floating art gallery, a community garden and nature trail.
The centre gained its charitable status because it is also a resource centre for disadvantaged people, including former prisoners trying to readjust to new lives and youngsters excluded from school. It is also used by schoolchildren in mainstream education and has satellite branches in other areas such as Selby.
Cllr Fox - who recently took her grandchildren on one of the boat trips around the docks - added: "The staff there were absolutely wonderful. I think when we've got something like that we should flag it up it for all its worth, and let people know it's there."
Claire Hunt, operations manager at the Sobriety Project, said: "We are desperate to have more signs up but it's a matter of getting funding to do that."
Two years ago the Sobriety Project came runner-up in the Visitor Attraction of the Year Award for the Yorkshire region.
Ms Hunt said the reason the charity missed out on the top spot was because there were no Sobriety Project signs on the M62 motorway near Goole.
She added: "There are lots of people coming up the M62 and it could really promote the venue if signs were there. We could also do with more around the docks and the town centre."
Ms Hunt said the four signs near the site - which lies between the Dutch River and the canal - were "not in particularly good places".
Pictured is of Claire Hunt, operations manager at the Sobriety Project. (12-06-59 GT)
Published on 12th June 2008 in News.
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