LIVERPOOL’S decision to go it alone with the creation of a £75,000-a-year tourism supremo has certainly raised a few eyebrows.

With tourism contributing an estimated £1.2bn-a-year to the city region’s economy, there is no doubt that this kind of salary can be justified for someone who delivers the goods.

But a quite exceptional case will have to be made from the Liverpool-only appointment. The remarks from the new chief at The Mersey Partnership (TMP), that local council leaders will explain exactly how everyone is working together to promote tourism, sound like a request through clenched teeth for everyone to get their act together, however polite the language may be.

A few years ago, the Merseyside Tourism Board was merged into TMP on the understanding that TMP would then become the lead body for tourism in the city region.

Note the phrase “city region”. Whatever local pride might say in the surrounding boroughs, it is the Liverpool name that drives tourism along and brings in the visitors.

Merseyside is a geographical description that has been around for 80-odd years, and for a while was the title of the upper tier of local government. It is a title that serves its purpose well, but hardly has the resonance that the name of Liverpool has.

The other councils and TMP need to take this on board, for their part. It is essential that they speak with one voice in this particular part of economic development, and do not start falling out between themselves and with Liverpool.

And Liverpool, for its part, needs to convince the other councils and its own taxpayers that the new Destination Liverpool director will augment and not duplicate or undermine the work of TMP.