Tales of packed esplanades, donkey rides on the beach and guesthouses overflowing with holidaymakers are a thing of the past. But while domestic tourism may have dwindled, the region’s coastal towns have diversified their offer and are fighting back. David Casey heads to the seaside.
From Blackpool to Brighton, the seaside occupied a special place in the heart and the mythology of industrial Britain – a place for fairground rides, fish and chips and sitting on striped deckchairs until the rain came.
But this vision of a traditional summer holiday has long since passed.
With increased affluence and low-cost flights to sunnier climes, tourists are unlikely to be lured to the region by a game of bingo on a windy promenade or a risqué cabaret act at the end of a pier.
But while people’s tastes have changed, so too have the seaside towns that once offered this type of holiday. Many rundown resorts have benefited from extensive makeovers that have acted as a catalyst for wider regeneration activities. A report by English Heritage published in October 2007 listed 15 coastal towns around the UK where historic assets have acted as a channel for successful regeneration and economic diversification. Whitby and Scarborough are two of them.
“It’s an exciting time for the towns situated along Yorkshire’s famous coast,” says Rich Rothwell from the planning, development and regeneration (PDR) team at GVA Grimley in Leeds. “Strategic renaissance initiatives and a variety of regeneration-led partnerships have created an economic framework for public, private and voluntary sector agencies to work together to address the decline of such localities and capitalise on their latent value. To date, a number of flagship developments and regeneration initiatives have been adopted and, or, implemented.”
Perhaps the most significant and strategic regeneration vehicle is Yorkshire Forward’s Renaissance Town and Cities Program. It has a 25-year holistic approach to the regeneration that should help to transform the run-down seaside resorts of yesteryear into modern, desirable and vibrant destinations.
Scarborough, in particular, has benefited from a wealth of targeted public and private sector spending in recent years. The town’s 2002 urban renaissance programme, A Vision for Scarborough, set out the parameters for revitalising the town’s fortunes and ending the “distinct pockets of multiple deprivation” that existed – something that’s now coming to fruition. Nick Taylor, urban renaissance manager at Scarborough Renaissance, estimates that £400m of private investment and £24m of public spending has been pumped into the town.
“There has been a massive effort to diversify what Scarborough has to offer and we’re really starting to see the results of that,” he says. “We’re no longer a seaside town, but a town by the sea. The creation of a new inner harbour marina has been completed, which should attract further inward investment and boost tourism, while The Spa is almost complete and should position the town as a conference destination again.
“In early July the Wood End Creative Industries Centre was opened, which is rapidly becoming a hub for creative businesses. We originally anticipated that office and studio accommodation would be about 40 per cent full after the first year, but when it opened it was nearly 70 per cent full. In addition, there has been the recent opening of The Rotunda museum and major improvements to public realm space.”
The largest regeneration project under way, however, is the construction of Scarborough Business Park located three miles out of the town centre. It’s hoped that the £100m scheme will further diversify businesses in the town and end the long periods of unemployment created by seasonal work. Taylor says it will help to create “higher yielding, higher-value businesses” and switch the town’s economic driver away from tourism, which currently accounts for 51 per cent of its GDP.
In June 2007 Wetherby-based developer Caddick was granted planning permission at the 83-acre site, which included more than 1 million sq ft of industrial and office accommodation, a 20,000 sq ft hotel, 39,500 sq ft for car showrooms and a restaurant and retail space. Infrastructure work has almost been completed, while Gladman Developments has also finished the first phase of a 53,000 sq ft office development after a deal with Caddick. Companies including TEF Transport and Raflatac have already signed up for space.
“Interest in the scheme has remained high since we announced our intention to develop here, but now the infrastructure work is almost complete we are experiencing a surge in demand,” says Peter Holley, Caddick’s development director. “Accessibility is key and the park can now offer this, as well as a range of other benefits for occupiers including flexible building solutions, the next generation of communications and a skilled and manual labour pool right on the doorstep.”
The next generation of communications mentioned by Holley is the NYnet 100MB internet connection, pioneered by Yorkshire Forward and North Yorkshire County Council. It’s thought that the facility will provide download and surfing speeds more than three times faster than those accessible in the biggest cities in the UK, and should attract high-tech digital businesses to the park.
But Scarborough isn’t alone in raising its game. Further down the coast in Bridlington there are two business park developments, including the 6-acre Bridlington Business Park, which has been transformed thanks to a £1m investment from Bradford-based developer Bossdean.
It’s also hoped the refurbished Spa Bridlington, a key element of the long-term regeneration plan for the town, will act as a catalyst for business growth and encourage new and increased numbers of visitors to the area. Some £19.5m of investment from East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund has been put into the venue to transform it into a major destination for live events and conferences.
Future development should also include the construction of a 320-berth that would be capable of hosting national and international regattas, although any work is unlikely to be started until 2010 at the earliest.
“As with Scarborough, there are some very encouraging signs for Bridlington,” says Keith Madeley, director of the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) and chairman of the Yorkshire Society. “The popularity of coastal resorts for conferences has declined over the past decade, but with new facilities such as The Spa there’s no reason why they can’t return there. Such schemes give seaside towns a real shot at affecting long-lasting change.”
Whitby, meanwhile, looks finally set to get its £900,000 marina after years of consultation and wrangling. Beverley-based Salts Architects was appointed in June to prepare designs for the project after a three-way pitch, and it’s hoped that construction can begin as early as January 2009.
Another town that’s on the up is Grimsby. Iain Griffin, strategic development surveyor at the Leeds office of DTZ, says it has endured a tough time in recent years, but there is cause for optimism. “It appears to have turned the corner, establishing itself as the credible Food Town of Europe and currently accommodates about 70 per cent of the UK’s fish processing industry centred along the A180 corridor,” he says.
“There is also a significant cluster of ready meal, chilled and other food manufacturing industries, while the Humber ports complex is the busiest in the UK, handling more than 20 per cent of the nation’s sea-borne trade. Opportunities for attracting businesses to the town exist, with the Grimsby area well suited to the convenience food culture of the modern food retail sector on a national and international scale.”
It’s thought that about 4,500 people work in the fish processing sector alone, not including the 1,000 indirect jobs created by the industry. Yorkshire Forward’s £70m Europarc Business Park has also been a notable success story. The site has allowed companies such as Headland Foods, which has doubled its production lines since moving from its former site on Humberstone Road, to expand and enabled the retention of this multinational.
“The park doesn’t only cater for developed businesses,” says Griffin. “At the heart of the business park, North East Lincolnshire Council has developed a £2m Innovation Centre that already supports a number of high-technology businesses. The centre offers high-quality managed workspace for knowledge-based businesses.”
Although it is apparent that costal towns such as Grimsby, Scarborough and Bridlington are starting to witness the benefits of their strategic development, GVA Grimley’s Rothwell says there needs to be continued and sustained private investment, especially in housing and employment, if the areas are going to thrive. “It is important that the local authorities are more aware of investment risks and, as such, more open to the provision of flexible and sustainable developments that can be changed in accordance with the status of the prevailing market,” he says.
“However, on a positive note, while rising inflation and significant increases in fuel prices are problematic, a reduction in disposable household income may result in increased domestic tourism.
“Furthermore, contemporary travel ethics regarding reducing carbon footprint could also result in more holidaymakers and their money working their way into Yorkshire’s coastal towns.”