The highlights, a checklist, and doing small things better

Big Bang! or a hundred small things better?

Much of the energy, funding and public face of regeneration is focused upon the large scale, the "iconic", the transformational.  This is understandable given the hoped for outcomes from such projects, the objectives of funders, the professional or political desire to leave a mark, and the attraction of much vaunted media coverage. Yet there are only so many totemic projects, conference/hotels, angels, greenhouses, celebrity chefs and rich paternalists to go round, and not just among coastal resorts. 

The less public faces of regeneration are the hundreds of small things that are done well by public and private bodies involved is some aspect of resort development and management. These include providing quality services, sprucing-up existing assets, maximising the available skills, talent and resources, engaging communities, raising local pride, and lifting ambition in small corners. This form of regeneration is probable more relevant for many seaside resorts given their tourism popularity, their lack of access to resources and their size and location. Facilitating such outcomes is an important role for local government and this section contains a "checklist" to assess how your authority is structured for facilitating "a hundred small thing better!"

The new LA powers of place shaping and producing an Economic Assessment(EA) can be positively employed in addressing what can be one of the barriers to coastal resort regeneration.  As has been illustrated, there are many organisations whose products, services and findings impact to varying degrees on coastal areas and communities. Local authorities that harness the activities of these disparate organisations behind a clearly agreed local vision for the area can maximise diminishing resources in developing more powerful holistic solutions for resort problems. The following checklist for reviewing your role facilitation is based upon the experience of Beacon Councils in the September 2004 IDeA paper: "facilitating the development of the rural economy".