Top marks to Punchline's clear exposition yesterday of the political row over Marketing Gloucester being bailed out by the city council to the tune of £240 000.

Yes, this is a lot of money but in my view there does not appear to be any great scandal here.

Some politicians are getting worked up over the way the issue was discussed behind closed doors and the fact there was no official comment afterwards.

So, who leaked the information about what was discussed over the financial situation at Marketing Gloucester.

My guess it is probably a politician or a disgruntled employee. I may be wrong, of course.

What I would say is that I believe the organisation has done a very good job since its inception.

I was a member of the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company at the time Marketing Gloucester was set up.

The GHURC realised there was little point in regenerating the city with key partners like Peel Holdings unless you actually sold and promoted the new look and feel of little old Gloucester.

This was a city 20 years ago that no developer would touch with a bargepole after a series of planning disasters.

The GHURC was a government company I was privileged to be vice chair of working with a great team including a brilliant chief executive in Chris Oldershaw.

At the end of its life after eight years - that was when the government scrapped the Regional Development agencies - it had leveraged in something like £750 million for various regeneration projects, mainly around the Docks.

Read more: Who is blowing the storm clouds towards Marketing Gloucester? 

I remember being on the committee that appointed Jason Smith as the part time chief executive of Marketing Gloucester. I thought he was passionate. That has proved to be the case.

I think that some of the furore of this Marketing GloucesterGate episode is down to the fact that he is high-profile.

Without a doubt, Marketing Gloucester has been successful. The events they organised have really brought in the visitors.

A lot of the credit for this influx of visitors must go to Peel who run Gloucester Quays which last year had a footfall of seven million.

And Peel provided a lot of the finance to drive these big events- in the Docks particularly.

But the real issue here is that Gloucester needs an organisation like Marketing Gloucester to grow its visitor economy and its status as a great, historic, small city.

For those councillors up in arms about the £240 000 bail-out, I would say that we must not allow this marketing work being enveloped into the city council's team.

It never worked and it will not work now.

And some of our councillors need to realise that you cannot cut out about £500,000 of Marketing Gloucester's budget over three years and expect the finances to be rosy.

Companies just do not hand over money in sponsorship. I know that having edited newspapers here in Gloucestershire and Bristol for the last 20 years.

There is really no room for petty politics here.

At the end of the day, Gloucester is a city that has come through the doldrums and is now on the way up. To stifle its marketing will be a retrograde step.

Read more: Who is blowing the storm clouds towards Marketing Gloucester? 

Ian Mean is a former vice chair of the GHURC and a Freeman of the City of Gloucester. He edited the Citizen and was editor in chief of Gloucestershire Media and Editor of the Western Daily Press. He is a main board member of GFirstLEP