TOURISM in Selby has been reduced to a Cinderella role, council chiefs admitted today.

A damning report to councillors says the area now has better pubs, eating places and leisure facilities - but no tourists.

A special "think tank" consultation meeting heard that the historic market town and surrounding area now generates only three per cent of the £1.25 billion spent by visitors to North Yorkshire. Guest house and holiday park owners told council officials that in the 1970s Selby was seen as the gateway to York and was alive with tourists.

Today, the picture was bleak, with visitors bypassing the town and its "architectural gem" Selby Abbey.

Public toilets in both Selby and Tadcaster, the tourist information centre and lack of coach parking all came under fire. The meeting was told that unless the tourist information centre was upgraded, it would be removed from Yorkshire Tourist Board's computer network. Jonathan Leake, who runs the Hazeldene Guest House, in Brook Street, Selby, said the merits of a town were often judged by the quality of its public toilets - and in Selby they were "chronic."

The meeting was called to discuss ways of boosting tourism after the council allocated £500,000 for economic development projects.

Mr Leake said: "It's basically a failure to promote the area."

The council's deputy chief executive, Mike White, said: "It's fair to say that tourism has been a Cinderella element of our economic development unit. We don't have a tourism strategy and we have a long way to go before Selby fulfils its tourism potential."

Ideas put forward at the meeting included guided tours of local power stations and breweries, reviving the Selby Tourist Association, a new "glossy" tourism brochure, and the development of cafes and walkways in the toll bridge area.

Also on the shopping list are new public toilets, a total revamp of the tourist information centre, more coach parking and a possible steam engine railway link between Selby and York.

Updated: 14:37 Tuesday, November 13, 2001