April 2007

It was very good news when councillors voted for the £60 million regeneration plans for Whitley Bay.  It means a redeveloped Playhouse Theatre, a new library, an upgraded leisure pool, better parks and crucially the restoration of the iconic Dome.  Add that to the new schools and new shopping centre and there are signs that things are looking up for this seaside town.  But the recent Select Committee Report on Seaside Towns was a stark reminder of some of the problems which still persist in many seaside and coastal areas.  The changing economy of the last forty or so years has included changes in our holiday habits.  It has meant that towns on the coast, sometimes quite isolated, saw their infrastructure decline, the empty guest houses which used to depend on tourists become havens for transitory workers or problem cases.  Perhaps if Conservative plans to restrict everyone to one flight a year to Malaga see the light of day it would change peoples habits.  But I doubt it.  More likely, and in my view quite properly, people will expect to make their own choice as to where to visit.  Seaside towns have to reposition themselves to attract travellers from abroad and domestic visitors on second or even third short break holidays. And - crucially they have to regenerate themselves to make them better places for the people who live there.  I've spent almost 10 years making the case for Seaside and Coastal towns through the Seaside Group of Labour MP's - with some success.  But now my message to the Chancellor Gordon Brown and to the Regional Development Agency is start planning for the next phase, focus on towns, particularly seaside towns, as well as cities in your regeneration policies - and let's build on the success so far.