Mr. John O'Hara:

We are looking into this with regard to the review of the new development plan. In the past three years, we have granted permission for 30 to 32 new hotels in the city. Of those hotels, the majority are on brownfield sites or sites that have been vacant for a generation or more. An aparthotel is planned for the Tivoli Theatre site. Andrews Lane Theatre is closed and I think a hotel is proposed for that site. The vast majority of the 30 or 32 hotels have been on brownfield sites. Hotels bring in visitors to the city. Each hotel of 200 beds generates nearly 100 jobs. The hotel fills brownfield and vacant land in the city, brings jobs to the city and brings visitors to the city. I am sure that after those visitors go to the sights during the day and have a meal or go to the theatre, they want to experience night time as well. We would fully support a night-time economy that creates that virtuous circle of bringing more visitors to the city to experience it, while using the hotels. It is not a matter of hotels being bad and culture being good. As I said in my presentation, at all times, we pursue a mixed-use philosophy for the city but what we have to try to explore all the time is how that mix of uses interrelates to the mutual benefit of one another. Hotels and cultural life are a part of that.