His first significant action could be a charge for overnight stays in Hull but, our visitor levy correspondent Angus Young asks, will he do it?

As part of last November’s budget, the government announced it was giving new powers to mayoral authorities to create new overnight visitor levies. Various versions of a so-called tourist tax already exist in some places. Some cities have introduced a visitor charge where hospitality venues in a defined area have agreed to it.

In Manchester, a £1 per room, per night charge has been in place since 2023 in participating hotels and serviced apartments in the city centre. Similarly, a £2 levy is in place in eligible accommodation in Liverpool. (The Manchester tourist tax has so far proven popular and successful – Ed.)

The idea behind these schemes and the government proposal currently out for public consultation is for funds raised from charges to be reinvested back into the local visitor economy. That could be anything from creating new physical infrastructure to improving transport and  even funding new festivals and events. Potentially, any new levy would apply to visitors using hotels, holiday lets, bed and breakfasts and guest houses.

Announcing the new powers, government minister Steve Reed said: “ Tourists travel from near and far to visit England’s brilliant cities and regions. We are giving our mayors  powers to harness this  and put more money into local priorities so they can keep driving growth and investing in these communities for years to come.”

Tourism in both Hull and East Yorkshire has become big business in recent years with the city recently named as one of the 25 best places in the world to visit in 2026  by the National Geographic Magazine. Recent data published by the Visit Hull and East Yorkshire partnership back this up. According to latest research, there were 12.1 million day and overnight visitor trips to the region during 2023 and a total spend of £815.9m. Meanwhile, the region’s visitor economy supported 21,263 jobs.

So what does Hull and East Yorkshire Mayor Luke Campbell make of the new powers given to him by the government? So far, he hasn’t exactly been enthusiastic about it. “My instinct is that a mandatory levy probably isn’t right for the region,” he said “I am concerned that adding extra costs for visitors could damage businesses that are already struggling. I fully support efforts to drive local growth but I don’t think putting another charge on people coming here is the best way to boost the economy. My test is simple: does it help local businesses and bring more people into the area?  If not, I won’t back it.”

He has asked officers at the mayoral authority to provide a full assessment of the levy in partnership with the region’s two local councils and the tourism and hospitality sector. Businesses working in the sector are currently being invited to have their say by sending their views directly to the authority. He has also received assurances from ministers that he’s not required to introduce a levy and won’t risk having future government funding reduced if he doesn’t go-ahead with one.

As Reform UK pledged to make £90bn worth of tax cuts before last year’s general election, perhaps the Mayor’s stance is not particularly surprising. But is he right?

Without at least operating an experimental mandatory levy for a limited time, it will be impossible to judge whether it is a success or not. Alternatively, introducing a voluntary charging scheme is really a cop-out as Mayors are meant to lead. Seven Labour Mayors – including London’s Sadiq Khan and Manchester’s Andy Burnham – have already welcomed the new powers.

Will Hull and East Yorkshire’s Mayor buck the trend? We shall see once the consultation closes on February 18.

Angus Young

Andy Train, of Pride In Hull, picks a marvellous statue not enough people in the city get to enjoy.

Dr Robb Robinson of University of Hull outlines the short but fascinating life of a true ecological pioneer.

Our book discussers Caitlin and Ally-mai offer their selections for the YA in your life.

Our firehouse beverage correspondent Angus Young explains the history of a hugely popular etching in the city.

In 1876 a Glasgow cordial drinks company called R. Paterson & Son received an unusual request. According to legend, the Gordon Highlanders regiment asked the firm to create a coffee drink that could be used easily on field campaigns in India. Regiment officers wanted an alternative to the time-consuming and complicated  process of grinding and brewing coffee beans in military kitchens. Paterson’s came up with Camp Coffee, a liquid drink featuring an essence of coffee beans, chicory and sugar poured straight from the bottle.

Camp was promoted as the world’s first instant coffee and included a distinctive label depicting a seated Gordon Highlander officer being served the drink by a Sikh carrying a tray with the coffee on it. In later versions, the tray was removed in an attempt to avoid charges of imperial superiority by displaying the Sikh as a servant while the current label features the two sitting together enjoying a cuppa.

Despite the changes over the years, one aspect of the label has stayed the same – a tent in the background complete with a red flag bearing the slogan ‘Ready Aye Ready’. Which brings us neatly to the former East Hull Fire Station in Southcoates Lane because the same three-word phrase is carved in stone arches above the building’s main front entrances.

The station opened in 1932 but the slogan recalls the early origins of the fire service in Victorian times when it became the official motto of the Edinburgh brigade. In those days of horse-drawn fire appliances, the officer in charge would shout  “Ready?” to confirm all his colleagues were on board before leaving the station. In response, they would reply: “Aye, ready.”  The motto became universal among fire crews with Scottish-born volunteer firefighters in Western Australia even bringing it with them when they emigrated. Today’s modern fire service in the province uses the Latin phrase Semper Paratas – Always Ready. Later it also became the official motto of both the Canadian Navy and the Sea Cadets Corps here in the UK.

The inclusion of the eye-catching motto in the building’s design in East Hull makes it unique. There’s not believed to be another fire station – in use or not – like it in the country. Despite this, a 1932 newspaper report giving a progress report on the final stages of the building’s construction makes no mention of it.

The report says: “It will be a fine modern building when completed and, in addition to a spacious recreation room and a reading room, will contain three baths and a shower-bath. It will have sufficient space to house three engines. Behind the building, accommodation is being erected for a crew of 12 firemen, while at the side is a cosy and attractive house for the inspector.”

The station closed in 2018 when crews transferred to a new station at the nearby Jean Bishop Integrated Health Centre. Since then, planning permission has been granted to convert the building into flats but, as yet, work has yet to start. Sadly, the attractive cottages originally built for the station’s first crew have been demolished and replaced with new housing. If and when the old station does undergo a facelift, let’s hope ‘Ready Aye Ready’ remains in place. As it currently features on the city council’s local list of architecturally important buildings, conserving the feature should be a must.   

Angus Young

Brandon is a paralegal at Wilkin Chapman Rollits, so he would seem to be the ideal person to tell us what the devil it is.

Col from Rewilding Youth Tells us his favourite places around the city for checking out the wildlife.

And no, it’s got nothing to do with Ray Davies or knicker shops, says our warped highways correspondent Angus Young.

Before we start answering today’s Curiosity question, let’s clear up a few things. Today’s instalment has got nothing to do with rumours about dedicated follower of fashion Ray Davies getting his old band back together for a comeback gig in Hull. Nor is it a prelude to the legendary Gwenap shop re-opening in a new location any time soon. Instead, we’re talking about a physical feature of Beverley Road you’ve probably never noticed before.

Like most of Hull’s long arterial routes, Beverley Road runs pretty much straight as an arrow. It’s also very old. After King Edward I issued a royal charter to found Kingston upon Hull in 1293, work started on creation of a number of permanent roads to neighbouring towns. Among them was a road to and from Beverley. By 1305 it was largely completed and was 60ft wide in some sections.

The next important date in the route’s history is 1714 when a private act of parliament was passed to turn it into Yorkshire’s first ever turnpike with travellers paying tolls to use it. Tolls were collected at the junction of Cottingham Road and the Beverley Gate entrance to the town itself.

Although flanked by open farmland, sporadic development gradually took place along the route with the small hamlet of Stepney being the most notable. By the late 18th century it boasted a number of scattered farmsteads, a couple of pubs and a Methodist Church.

The old hamlet was effectively wiped off the map during mid to late 19th century Victorian development which effectively replaced it. The oldest surviving buildings from that period are the former Stepney railway station house and the Pentecostal Glad Tidings Hall at the junction with Cave Street. The old Stepney stretched from just south of the railway (which was opened in 1848) to where two former pubs – the Rose Hotel and The Bull Hotel – now stand opposite each other.

It’s here where the main road gently curves westwards away from its otherwise straight path before returning to normal just after the entrance to Pearson Park. The kink is barely noticeable if you’re driving but take a slow walk around the spot, look at the layout of the buildings and – with a bit of imagination – you can visualise the northern boundary of where the old village was being modestly redeveloped with shops and terraced streets..

The Rose and the Bull act as bookends with Stepney Lane (once a footpath) the dividing line between Stepney and a newer district of grand detached Victorian villas and prestigious public buildings, including Beverley Road Baths and Stepney Primary School. The origin of the curve is almost certainly due to the position of the villas and the requirement to provide their well-heeled residents with expansive, sweeping views looking across the widened tree-lined road towards the Baths and the School. As ever, money talked and the kink was constructed to make things pleasing on the eye for all concerned, especially the posher ones.

Back then, it must have felt like walking from a working-class area into a comfortable upper middle-class neighbourhood in just a couple of steps. Today, you can still sense the change from the densely-packed ribbon of shops lining Beverley Road as it cuts through Stepney to the spacious urban vistas beyond.

Sadly, both the Rose or the Bull are no longer pubs, having been converted into flats. Happily, both their distinctive architecture and distinctive old pub signage remain largely intact – including the famously Norman Collier-esque noticeboard outside The Rose which continues to delight passers-by of a certain age.

Angus Young

Actor Peter McMillan selects a great, offbeat edifice that all of us love and some of us fear!

Our tenacious Urban Mythbuster Amy Thompson returns to the Hull History Centre to discover the truth about a (very) tall tale.