COUNCIL bosses and big businesses in Oxfordshire are ploughing more than £1m into the county’s tourism industry.

Their ambition is to create 4,000 new jobs and generate millions in extra income.

Such a bold manifesto is to be welcomed. A unified, co-ordinated approach to maximising Oxford and Oxfordshire’s lucrative appeal to tourists is vital.

With the fall-out from the recession still very much with us, we need to be working hard to create jobs and revenue for the county in any which way we can.

But we must also remember that the vast majority of the money being invested is yours — taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.

Yes, we need to speculate to accumulate, but it must also ensure our money is well spent and these ambitious goals achieved.

There must be tangible results.

The real story will be in three or four years’ time, when the city council reveals that thousands of real people have real jobs because of the investment. We will be demanding updates along the way.