Hotel's Welsh-English name change - a snub or 'just business'?
Post categories: welshidentity
| 08:12 UK time, Friday, 5 February 2010
Did you see locals giving their views in front of the TV cameras last night about the Gateway to Wales hotel changing its name to align itself with visitors to Chester rather than north Wales?
Everyone said they felt the hotel should stay true to its name and its location - Deeside - firmly in Wales.
It's not the first time such a row has been prompted by a business trying to drum up business from over the border - rather than marketing itself using north Wales tourism.
So much so that a local website was set up some time ago to take business to task regarding such decisions.
The Leader picked up on the story previously with a blog by Janet Ryder AM headlined, 'Anger at hotel name change'.
Meanwhile, her Plaid colleagues in Wrexham have now got Flintshire Council Trading Standards involved, querying whether the name change could be misleading.
But the hotel website and map clearly shows it's in Wales.
So, should we be concerned if businesses on this side of the border use such a tactic if they think it's more beneficial? Is it just business - and does that make it OK?
Or do you feel this more evidence of the so-called Chesterfication of north Wales - something which last week led to a 15,000-name petition - opposed to a plan on tightening links between Welsh and English counties - being presented to the Welsh assembly?
