Coastal issues and the Select Committee Inquiry into coastal towns

Where did it all go wrong?

If the 1930s and 50s were the heyday of the coastal resort, then the 1970s and 80s witnessed the social and economic changes that impacted on established resort structures and mores, as staying visitors declined, holiday accommodation became cheap housing, and urban-bred social problems came to the seaside.

The 1960s may have been the last days of coastal community stability, and the last decade of rail domination that fed the growth of resorts, when, paradoxically, seasonality was more defined as the regimented summer season ending in September and was followed by shutdown as traders, landladies and residents hunkered down for the deserted winter. While poverty and the poor must have existed, their details were not refined into Indices of Multiple Deprivation – misery was largely your own and went largely unrecorded.

The 1960s were also the cusp of the modern era as more money, more cars, more planes and more media meant more choice, a more liberal society, more mobility, more welfare support and more individual freedoms. It also meant less collective community activity, less forelocking, fewer trains, fewer works outings and fewer pre-booked mass holidays. There is something poignant in the fact that the mainly northern resorts that serviced belching industrial heartlands have experienced the greatest decline in their economic fortunes, and have developed some of the worst social problems.

There is also something poignant about local authorities, among others, who are seeking to grapple with the modern tide of coastal issues with often little more than Canute-like resources and faith. The last 30 years have seen the range of coastal problems broarden, presenting more complex and costly challenges to local authorities and public service providers. Table 2-1 lists the coastal issues that underline the SCI recommendations and which coastal regeneration practitioners seek to address.

Table 2-1: Coastal issues highlighted by the Select Committee Inquiry into Coastal Towns:

Coastal erosion and flooding
Sea defences and regeneration< /em>

Lower employment levels
Higher sickness and disability benefits

Affordable Housing, HMOs, caravans
Placing vulnerable people in resorts

Seasonality of the poor coastal economy
Need for economic diversification

In-migration of older people
Out-migration of younger people

Peripherality issues
Transport connections

Low educational attainment levels
Poor health issues

Enhancing the public realm
Attracting investment

Low skills and wage economy
Public and private sector recruitment issues

Business development
Tourism support sector

The responsibility for addressing these disparate but interconnected issues resides with numerous national, regional and local organisations, who are often focused exclusively on their core services and prescribed targets. Meanwhile, the collective impact of resort problems are experienced by local authorities who are expected to provide leadership and solutions for issues and forces that may be beyond their budgets and influence. This is often the burden of local democracy and one that is being reinforced with the new ‘place shaping’ agenda, which tasks local authorities with leading on the social, economic and environmental wellbeing issues and generating a collective vision for the development of the area. This is a formidable challenge that will require strong leadership, realistic assessment of potentials, and significant cultural partnership shifts among the many policy shapers and service providers, not least at the seaside!

To recreate the 1950s ‘golden age’ of the seaside resort would require the removal or amelioration of a number of those social and economic changes that have emerged over the past 50 years. If this retrospection were possible, would it be desirable? For what purpose are we seeking to regenerate our coastal resorts? What forces are at work here and what countervailing forces are available to support visions for coastal futures? What futures are available? Can coastal regeneration move from reactive to proactive at a time when ‘diminishing resources’ could be added to the menu of woes? Chapter 4 reviews coastal regeneration – past, present and future.

The challenges facing coastal regenerators can be divided into three broad areas:

• dealing with the social, cultural and economic costs of deprivation;
• maximising the quality and income of existing resort assets;
• diversifying the economic base of resorts.

Conventional wisdom regards economic growth as one of the main weapons in addressing deprivation, and a great deal of European and national regeneration resources are directed at business innovation, skills development and productivity. Coastal resorts are generally not, however, attractive to inward investment and new sector developments. The conventional regeneration wisdom is not working at the seaside.

Building on existing resort assets and demographies appears a more realistic business development approach to improving the local economy and the quality of the visitor offer, as later chapters demonstrate. Notwithstanding the necessity to maximise existing assets and the drive to diversify, there is perhaps a greater need for a more coordinated approach to addressing resort deprivation as a route towards improving the wellbeing of coastal communities, reducing public sector costs, which could raise local aspirations, pride and inform new visions.

The next section reviews how coastal local authorities are currently seeking to deal with the coastal forces that mould the social and economic circumstances of resorts.