BLACKPOOL'S century-old conference trade is still healthy - and that's official.

Despite the headline-grabbing losses of the Labour Party and TUC next year, the resort still has a string of major conference bookings bringing thousands of extra visitors this summer.

Unions like the shopworkers' USDAW - in town this week with 1,500 delegates - and the GMB, bringing 1,000 in June, remain loyal to the resort.

This weekend alone 5,000 people are heading to Blackpool for the British Association of Barbershop Singers convention - with the added bonus of entertainment for the public with an American choir at the Opera House.

The Police Federation and the National Pensioners Convention are both booked for next month, each bringing 2,000 people.

A further 1,500 war veterans will be booking in for the Burma Star Assocation conference in June.

And despite - or perhaps because of - Labour's desertion to the southern resorts, the Conservatives are still bringing 7,000 followers to their national conference in October, having pledged to remain loyal to Blackpool every other year.

Labour and the TUC blamed lack of modern facilities for their withdrawal - the Winter Gardens venue, now under new ownership of Leisure Parcs, was particularly criticised. But Leisure Parcs has launched a 12-month feasibility study into building a new conference centre on a site next to Blackpool police HQ.

Blackpool Hotel and Guest House Association president Pam Ruddy said: "Conferences are still coming to Blackpool and the people whose job it is to get them here are working very hard behind the scenes to maintain the trade we've got and develop new ones.

"But we have to face up to the competition - it's true that Blackpool has rested on its laurels, though the fact that the main venue was privately-owned and not in the hands of the council has played a part."

Blackpool Council, which spends £1m a year to support the conference trade, has thoroughly welcomed Leisure Parcs' feasibility study, reserving the site specially for that purpose.

In the meantime, said Mrs Ruddy: "We have a number of strengths in the conference arena and we mustn't lose sight of that by concentrating on the weaknesses.

"We have a huge availability of accommodation and a tremendous variety of entertainment. Now the shops are playing their part by putting up welcome signs for each conference in their windows. Partnership like this is the way forward."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.