Regeneration players and coastal networks

The local government hotchpotch

There are •• district councils and •• county and •• unitary councils who are responsible for the local government administration of the 125 coastal resorts around the English coast (see Figure 2-2). The district councils share service delivery responsibilities with their overlaying tier of county councils while the unitary authorities are responsible for all local government services in their areas. The latter can range in size from large, historic and predominantly rural counties to high-density, urban coastal settlements. What do such structures and geographies mean for coastal regeneration? What can a front-line district council expect to influence and achieve for its coastal resorts when faced with limited financial and staff resources, the competing demands from traditional inland rural communities,  the priorities of members, and the political cycle that can promote expediency over a long-term vision? 

Do servicing the unitary needs of large areas, such as Cornwall and Northumberland, present different regeneration challenges from servicing compact coastal urban areas, such as Bournemouth, Blackpool, Hartlepool or Torbay? Suffice to say that, as with many coastal issues, there is a lack of information by which to evaluate the most cost-effective, relevant and community-engaging structure for coastal regeneration. However, the new powers of local authorities for ‘place shaping’, for producing local economic assessments, and the ability to form Local Area Agreements (LAAs) and, probably more relevant for resorts, coastal-hugging Multi Area Agreements (MAAs), provide the opportunity for informing the debate, testing new structures and stimulating new coastal leaderships and visions.

Structures apart, the effectiveness of coastal regeneration by LAs will be influenced by the financial and staff resources available, by the quality of local leadership and management that attracts national and regional support and galvanises established, and hitherto marginal, partners into delivery agreed objectives. Understanding the processes that lead to effective local delivery is one of the main objectives of this Handbook and is the subject of a CCA website debate. Your views are welcomed on www.coastalcommunities.co.uk. Below is a return from North Somerset Council in response to the CCA questionnaire on coastal issues. Please feel free to provide answers to the questions posed and contribute to the debate.

The CCA Coastal Regeneration Questionnaire – Sample Response

Name: North Somerset Council, Unitary Council: Population 204,700 (Census 2001).
Rresorts: Weston-super-Mare(71,759), Clevedon (21,957) and  Portishead(17,130).

Do you think that coastal issues merit special attention in regeneration plans?

There are characteristics within coastal towns that require a different approach. These include:

• Sea and coastal defence & enhancement programmes
• Climate change & rising sea levels
• Perceived remoteness – ‘end of the line’ perception of potential investors and
• economic development
• Public realm projects
• Seasonality
• Transient populations
• Age profiles of populations
• Specific health and housing issues
• Cultural
• Identity, profile and public perception

Do you have an explicit coastal regeneration plan/strategy?

No specific coastal plan or strategy but there are a number of ongoing areas of work relating to the coastal regions of the district

• Business website with distinct identity
• Sea front flood defences and enhancement work
• Weston Area Action Plans
• Civic Pride
• ‘Sea Change’ project to promote the seafront and parks
• Port Marine, Portishead

If the Seven Barrage goes ahead then this will have huge implications for North Somerset district and coastal areas in particular across a range of issues. Two of the short listed options are –

• Middle Barrage from Brean Down to Lavernock Point – known as the Cardiff – Weston barrage
• Bridgwater Bay lagoon – on the English shore between Weston-super-Mare and east of Hinkley Point

What are the barriers to coastal regeneration in your area?

• Lack of resources and funding
• North Somerset district is mostly prosperous which masks pockets of high deprivation including the two most deprived wards in the district, located in Weston
• North Somerset district is mostly prosperous which masks pockets of high deprivation including the two most deprived wards in the district, located in Weston-super-Mare. There have been no Neighbourhood Renewal or Working Neighbourhood Fund allocations in the area, apart from a small SSCF neighbourhood management programme in one of Weston’s most deprived wards (ends March 2010).
  
• Low wages compared to high house prices
  
• Traditional employers in the area that employed high percentage of local people (aviation and shoe making) now gone
  
• Intergenerational worklessness
  
• High unemployment and levels of incapacity and other benefit claimants
  
• Area is seen as dormitory area to Bristol with high % of residents commuting to work there
  
• Transport infrastructure including lack of capacity at Junction 21, M5 motorway.
  
• Rail connections in Weston-super-Mare are on a loop line and off main London – Bristol – Exeter – Penzance route. No stations at Clevedon or Portishead. Campaign running to re-open Portishead – Bristol line as infrastructure still in place.
  
• High levels of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation)
  
• High levels of mental health and drug/alcohol dependency
  
• The number of people sent to area from other areas to undertake drug rehabilitation treatment (Weston-super-Mare has 11% of drug rehab places in UK).
  
• High transient population
  
• Seasonal nature of tourism related employment
  
  

Weston super Mare

As with many Victorian coastal towns, Weston Super Mare has issues around people on benefits and drug/ alcohol rehabilitation. This has built up over many years due to a number of factors including location by the sea, access from around the country and a large supply of Victorian buildings suitable for conversion to smaller units. Other towns and cities have preferred to send their rehabilitees on rather than dealing with them locally. Also large job losses in manufacturing during the 1990s has led to high levels of low-skilled unemployed people and benefits claimants in the town.

A number of actions have been and are being taken to reduce impact of the issues, these have included: use of Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) to improve older buildings which have resulted in some being converted from bed sits to more modern apartments; Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) used to address health and safety issues in HMOs as well as conversion of bed sits into affordable housing units; targeted action at drug dealers and closing down of rehabilitation centres not meeting assessment requirements.  A Ready4work programme provides re-training and re-skilling for long term unemployed in the Weston and surrounding areas.

Neighbourhood Management in South Ward has made a major step change in terms of community engagement and empowerment to ensure local residents have more say and influence over decisions taken in the area and service delivery

General

There are signs that key sites in the coastal towns will be redeveloped soon - early discussion with developers is encouraging. Ensuring the retail and service industries are fit for purpose alongside increased town centre residential development is essential.  Each of our three coastal towns is different and one challenge is to maintain that local and cultural distinctiveness.

8. What are your priorities in coastal regeneration?

• Economic development and attracting investment – attracting high quality new businesses to the area (private and public)
• Employment led planning policies relating to new housing developments
• Employment - tackling worklessness and getting people off benefit (programmes include Ready4Work and bid submitted for Future Jobs Fund)
• Health – reducing inequalities in areas of deprivation in coastal communities
• Education – supporting local primary and secondary schools to be able to raise the aspirations of children and young people
• Perception and identity – raising and changing profile of coastal areas being a good place to live and work.
• Visitor economy & visitor experience e.g. short break themed holidays attracting wider range of visitors, ‘a Taste of North Somerset’ local food promotion
• Visitor attractions that are open all year round – thus providing permanent employment rather than seasonal

Have you developed expertise in addressing specific coastal resort problems?

• Sea front flood defence and enhancement works
• Work of drug action teams
• Partnership working to tackle issues including housing, anti-social behaviour, Tourism.

Can you provide details of regeneration successes and good practice in your area?

• Attracting funding from CABE Sea Change fund – successful bid for Weston-super-Mare
• Regional Development Agency funding for Civic Pride, public realm improvements in Weston super Mare.
• 
  
• Knightstone Island, Weston-super-Mare
• Port Marine, Portishead
• Portishead public art programme (www.publicartportishead.co.uk)
• Clevedon Pier (Grade I listed)
• Sea front enhancement programme, Weston-super-Mare including rebuilding of pavilion (in private ownership) of Grand Pier (Grade II listed), following fire in 2008.
• T4 On The Beach event now in 4th year at Weston-super-Mare – this Channel 4 event has increased the profile of area and attracted in young people from across UK. Council has worked very hard to hold onto event, against stiff competition from other resorts.
• South Ward Neighbourhood Management Programme

Can you provide details of enterprising coastal businesses in your area?

• Cove Restaurant in Weston has secured a place in the Which Good Food Guide and has been awarded an AA Rosette only 18 months after opening, and achieved good coverage in national newspapers. www.the-cove.co.uk
• Clevedon Pier Trust http://www.clevedonpier.com/history2.htm
• Portishead Pool Community Trust http://www.portisheadopenairpool.org.uk/
  

Contact: Marian Barber, Head of Economy and Regeneration. Tel - 01934 42 6670  marian.barber@n-somerset.gov.uk

Moving inland, Government Offices (GOs) and the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), with their influence over large amounts of European Union and national regeneration funding and their connections with government departments, are clearly important partners for LAs in securing project funding, promoting coastal issues, supporting project delivery and addressing deprivation issues.

A sample of coastal activities by GOs include:

• coastal studies of flood risk;
• supporting LSPs and LAAs;
• processing projects for the SeaChange initiative;
• addressing coastal housing issues;
• facilitating a Seaside Violent Crime conference;
• supporting delivery vehicles, such as the Blackpool Task Force, and promoting the Flyde coast MAA.

See Chapter 15 for further details on GOs’ coastal regeneration activities.

England’s nine RDAs were established in 1999 to bring a regional focus to economic development. As with GOs, RDAs work in partnership with public, private and voluntary organisations to deliver their strategic objectives. Among coastal projects that RDAs have been involved in are:

• developing coastal strategies;
• promoting renewable energy research;
• supporting tourism research;
• developing resort action plans;
• supporting heritage initiatives.

A fuller review of individual RDAs’ coastal regeneration activities appear in Chapter 15.

However, given the economic-growth emphasis of regional players and the intense competition from urban areas, the relatively undynamic nature of many resort economies – coupled with higher-output, inland urban claims – can make them less attractive for funding streams that support opportunity over need, and require strong coastal leadership, direction and creativity.

At the national level, all government departments impact on coastal resorts to varying degrees, as indeed they do in all areas, in delivering substantial programmes of public service and maintaining employment. However, it is the distinctly coastal interlocking issues of low educational attainment, poor health, lack of business development, growing worklessness and increasing incapacity benefit claimants that contribute to coastal deprivation, and that merit government policy reviews on service delivery.

The Select Committee Inquiry (oft cited!), in recognising the lack of coastal awareness among some government departments, recommended the establishment of a Cross-Departmental Working Group on Coastal Towns (XDWGCT). Because of the undynamic nature of resort economies, they also proposed the setting-up of an RDA Coastal Network to disseminate best practice on business diversification, skills and employment creation. These groups are reviewed below. 

Established in 2007, the XDWGCT is intended to provide a mechanism for the exchanging of information about coastal settlements between all departments of state. A small team of staff at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) administers the working group, who have already delivered a valuable service in commissioning two pieces of research into the socioeconomic circumstances of the 80 largest coastal resorts in England. It is to be hoped that the work of the working group will also lead to a freely available, national definition of coastal resorts, thereby enabling research comparisons around the country. The working group have also invited a range of coastal and regional stakeholders to present at their meetings, including the CCA, Brada and the Coastal SIG. They have also provided financial support for the production of this Handbook

Despite the determination of the people involved in establishing the XDWGCT and the Regional Development Agency Coastal Network, both have met some resistance from government departments in supporting their work, often on the basis that the government departments’ role is about policy, while the delivery and impact of their national programmes are the responsibilities of regional and local delivery agencies. The fact that many coastal resorts over-consume some public programmes (e.g. incapacity benefits and health services), while other programmes have limited impact in some resorts (e.g. business services, education and skills development), requires further analysis and a national policy response.

The global recession has, as in many other spheres, impacted on these national coastal bodies, in two negative ways.

• First, before the global financial disaster, and following a long period of rising national  employment and economic growth, there was evolving a concerted national programme focused on addressing worklessness, which is a substantial and growing problem in coastal resorts. However, the scale of the financial crisis resulted in government departments having to divert attention and resources to dealing with the failings of the banking system, supporting industry and responding to rising unemployment.
• Meanwhile, the RDAs were having their funds diverted into housing and their powers and morale undermined by structural reviews. Even the highly valued and well-received new funding stream, SeaChange, has felt the machete of public cuts!

Despite the existence of the XDWGCT and the RDA Coastal Network, the CCA considers there is a need for a nationally resourced and independent Coastal Intelligence Unit  to support coastal regeneration practitioners by articulating the social and economic circumstances and needs of coastal resorts, supporting topic groups, highlighting good practice and informing and lobbying for policy reforms.