The highlights, a checklist, and doing small things better

This final section makes suggestions to improve the national coordination of coastal regeneration activity, highlights some of the main points from our diverse range of contributors and concludes with a facilitation checklist for local authorities designed for you to pepper and season with your own experiences and knowledge.

Despite the range of coastal issues debated here, and particularly: the shortages of appropriate research in many areas; the concerns about political and funding timescales and priorities, and the looming challenge of increased local authority responsibilities with decreasing resources, the dominant messages from the book are the need and desire to move from analysis to action by employing new thinking, new policy and new leadership in maximising the skills and the resources that are currently available to deliver new futures for our coastal resorts.

To support coastal regeneration practitioners in their work, the following actions are recommended:

Coastal regeneration is not working – national review and new thinking required

Recognise the problem! National and local governmental accept the resort “dimension” and lead on better coordination between all organisations involved in coastal regeneration.

Gov. departments, GOs and RDAs to nominate coastal resort specialists

Gov. departments to join in the workings of the XDWGCT and RDA Coastal Network

National research is required into coastal tourism, coastal enterprise and coastal public sector delivery costs.

Maintenance of the SeaChange programme – the morale and partnership boosting coastal regeneration fund.

The establishment of national topic groups on coastal research, housing, enterprise, arts/culture, worklessness and recruitment to inform policy and spread good practice.

Creation of a national funded coastal intelligence team to maintain coastal resort momentum and to support regeneration practitioners and the topic groups.

Promote the activities and membership of all coastal interest groups and networks to increase their impact, capacity and to disseminate their work.

This book began with the affirmation that while coastal resorts are in difficulties, these difficulties are far from being terminal and that they are very much worth preserving. However, there is a recognition that new thinking is now needed on how resorts can be regenerated for the for the 21C. The new thinking will require national and local leadership and strong facilitation by local government to focus and unite the coastal regeneration “industry”. With diminishing resources and increasing service demands, the emphasis will be on creative partnership, greater cooperation and cultural change to revitalise areas and extend effectiveness.

Despite the contribution of the SCI Coastal Towns report, many practitioners believe that greater engagement is still required and that national policy makers need a better understand of, and need to engage with, coastal delivery issues, particularly in education, enterprise, worklessness and health, and to evaluate the additional public sector costs involved in coastal delivery.

Allied to the need for greater national awareness, is the concern, even frustration, at the lack of co-ordination, and the disconnected impacts, of the many organisations with an interest in coastal regeneration. Greater outcomes could be achieved, it is argued, if the skills and resources of disparate forces were united behind agreed coastal visions. The emerging “place-shaping” role of local government creates the framework for greater integration of effort through local leadership and facilitation in coastal regeneration.

Constant themes that emerged through the book were the need for fresh visions on coastal resorts, for better research, for stronger leadership, for innovative partnership and thinking, and for a more pro-actively energising approach to established problems. These will themes emerge as we review the more specific points raised by our many authors, starting with regeneration.