Getting paid for his summer holiday

Early starts on Tuesdays from now onwards. From this week Hit the North joins Duncan Barkes on the new breakfast show on City Talk to discuss all things travel at 7.45am.

We will be particularly looking at travel and tourism news, trends and controversies around the great Northwest and Wales. And we want to hear from you. Post your comments below, or follow us on Twitter. Tell us about the burning travel issues where you are and we'll put them on air.

To kick things off, I'll be asking if it's time to hang up my black moleskin notepad (last used on the summit of Snowdon, above left) and give up on travel writing once and for all. The reason? The man who brought us mistletoe and wine is steaming in on my patch.

Yes, that's right. Sir Cliff is one of the writers featured on Simon Seeks, the new travel website dominating the headlines today. The new venture from Simon Nixon, who founded his multi-million-pound Moneysupermarket business in Chester before moving it to North Wales, works on a revenue-sharing model of user-generated content.

I've so far politely declined the lure of Simon Seeks and have major reservations about whether it would pay. Others clearly share these reservations. Some freelance colleagues are dipping a toe in the water but worried about the long-term repercussions on the craft of the professional travel writer.

Sir Cliff's travel-scribing debut, a piece about his love of Barbados, is more notable for its cringe-inducing use of exclamation marks than its jaw-dropping literary merit but, hey, he'll get the hang of this travel writing lark. Give the young lad a chance.

As will, no doubt, that bloke who used to play guitar in Toploader. He did Dubai in a weekend apparently. Huzzah.

So join us at 7.45am this Tuesday. I'll at least get one in before Sir Cliff muscles in on this too.