MP backs Robin Hood revival in Nottingham

Plans for Nottingham Castle include a new visitor centre

Nottingham should make more of its links with Robin Hood, an MP says.

Graham Allen is promoting ideas such as an enormous steel bow and arrow and an international archery competition to help promote the city.

Mr Allen is meeting Culture Secretary Maria Miller to discuss a £26m Nottingham Castle revamp project.

The castle proposals include a Robin and the Rebels Discovery Centre and a medieval moat.

The Nottingham North MP said: "We criminally under-exploit our global brand of Robin Hood and I am delighted Nottingham is coming forward with some excellent proposals to put that right, including upgrading and restoring Nottingham Castle.

"Everybody from Beijing to Los Angeles knows our city and now is the time to renew the brand."

Nottingham City Council is bidding for a £15m Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant which it said was "essential" for the castle project.

The council said the work would not begin until 2016.

In 2009, the city's only dedicated attraction, the Tales of Robin Hood, closed due to falling visitor numbers.

The Grade l listed castle attracts almost 270,000 visitors a year.