A backbench MHK says the shambles over the rally cancellation is reflective of a bigger problem with the way government works.

Chris Robertshaw is calling for Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly to resign over his failure to support the rally and the wider tourism sector.

And he believes there should be a Tynwald scrutiny committee inquiry into what went wrong.

Rally Isle of Man is the third biggest tourism event in the island, generating annual revenue of between £1.5 million to £2 million.

This week, organisers announced the event, scheduled to take place from September 13 to Sptember 15, was cancelled, blaming insurmountable delays in obtaining the necessary road closure order.

But the Department of Infrastructure placed the blame firmly at the feet of the rally organisers, saying they did not have the confidence that the rally could be run safely and competently.

Douglas East MHK Mr Robertshaw rebuked the DoI for its ’intransigence’ but had particular criticism for the Department for Enterprise who he said had failed to do more to get the rally back on track.

He said: ’This wasn’t a disaster waiting to happen.

’It was actually recoverable. But people dug into their positions.

’And the department who should have had a real interest, who could have made this work, were not fighting the corner for the rally.’

He accept the DfE had offered to underwrite the event, but this was predicated on agreement being reached with the DoI over the road closures.

Earlier this year, Mr Robertshaw called for Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly to resign over a sharp drop in visitor numbers.

And in the wake of the rally’s cancellation, he has renewed that call for the Minister to step down.

He said: ’I think the DfE has failed in its duty to support tourism.

’The Minister is simply not working for tourism. There’s nobody fighting the corner for tourism. He should go.’

He added: ’This is indicative of a bigger, more fundamental problems with the way the government works.

’Government doesn’t have the capacity to think strategically.’

He said he traced back the rally’s problems to 2011 when government withdrew the £100,000 a year funding support it had previously given.

Tourism

Mr Robertshaw, who chairs the economic policy review committee, hopes his colleagues will support an investigation into what happened.

He said: ’We need an inquiry.

’ We need to find out who said what and why and find the truth.’

Hoteliers are counting the cost of the rally’s cancellation.

Michael George at the Welbeck Hotel, in Mona Drive, Douglas, had 24 guests booked in for the rally, 20 of those for the full week.

He reckons he’s lost £9,000 in bookings, although two thirds of them had cancelled for other reasons about two weeks earlier.

’It’s the reputational impact I’m more worried about. Okay, I’m nine grand down. But it’s a mess.

’I can’t see how it came to this.

’The DfE should have got everybody together to get something done this year.’