Memorandum by Sefton Metropolitan Borough
Council (CT 27)
SOUTHPORT—REGENERATING A COASTAL RESORT
TOWN ON THE NW COAST
INTRODUCTION
From the boom times of the 50s and 60s Southport,
together with most other English coastal resort towns, sat on
its hands and watched its customers learn a new way of both taking
their annual holidays and enjoying their leisure time and spend.
Once the need for action was recognised Southport
commenced its regeneration story with the aim of transforming
the resort into something that the contemporary market place would
find attractive and therefore use. The following paper aims to
provide feedback against the six questions posed in the brief
using the experience gained through that (ongoing) regeneration
process. It is not meant to be an exhaustive or detailed account
but merely to provide an overview that the committee may find
informative. Considerable additional information is available
if required.
THE STARTING
POINT
By the early 90s the consumer product of Southport
had been relatively unchanged for considerable time and essentially
comprised the famous Victorian boulevard of Lord St with its core
retail element together with a traditional beach, pier and seafront
fairground offer. Between the two were a series of parks and gardens
including a substantial man made recreational lake used by dinghy
and pleasure sailors.
Initial strategic thinking was that the weakest
part of the resort product was without doubt the seafront and
the early regeneration efforts should therefore be concentrated
in that area. The biggest single issue that stood in the way of
progress was inadequate sea defences. The real world effect of
this was that the "seafront promenade" was closed due
to tidal effect for between 90-100 days per year. The prospect
of enticing serious private sector capital investment into the
seafront was consequently non existent.
Accordingly, work on new sea defences commenced
in the mid 90s with the first of the three phases being the critical
centre element in front of the core seafront area. This was a
multi agency funded project.
The underlying logic employed in regenerating
Southport has always been that carefully designed public sector
infrastructure projects would encourage private sector investment
which would then in turn generate some momentum to the renaissance
of the town. The seawall project therefore had a key objective
of the appropriate unlocking of the latent private sector investment
potential of the seafront.
A decade later considerable progress has been
made by substantial investment from both the public and private
sectors. Southport now has a revitalised seafront and is enjoying
growth in visitor volume and value. Alone this would represent
substantial progress but it wouldn't be sufficient to guarantee
success in a modern changing destination market place. For this
a rather more holistic approach to regeneration is required. An
example would be Southport's round 3 SRB programme that was as
community driven as it was private sector driven.
True successful regeneration requires not just
refreshed public realm but serious progress in all the major elements
that make a successful and thriving community. In this sense a
coastal town isn't greatly different from a city for example but
it does have characteristics that differentiate.
The inquiry poses six questions and the following
is a necessarily brief response to them.
1. The case for special initiatives to tackle
the needs of coastal towns
Southport is a clear case where "special
initiatives" such as SRB, NRF, Sure Start, EU funding etc
have been and will continue to be crucial to assisting the regeneration
process. While none of these are targeted specifically to coastal
towns, there needs to be awareness that coastal towns do require
the kind of support these vehicles provide.
The NWDA commissioned "New Vision for North
West Coastal Resorts (2001)" does effectively act as a regional
coastal towns special initiative aimed at setting out the strategic
potential for them. It was successful in focusing local and regional
thinking. The principles within may well have benefit if applied
on a national basis and would support previous national work on
this issue.
2. Is ODPM's work on housing, social and
environmental problems sufficiently focussed or adequately funded
for coastal town purposes
A key issue is the need to join up support and/or
initiatives across various Government Department/policy areas.
It's clearly not only ODPM's responsibility. In this context the
need for an integrated approach to regeneration is the same in
coastal towns as for most inner city areas. The same lessons (good
and bad) can be applied. Experience in Southport has shown that
it is often difficult to persuade Government and Regional agencies
that there is a problem—eg difficulty in accessing SRB funding,
getting Southport appropriately recognised at Regional Economic
Strategy (RES) level and at Objective 1 level in GONW. The issue
is perhaps not so much the level of funding, but the recognition
of the need and relevance for funding in the first place.
3. What is the effectiveness of ODPM's liaison
with other departments in key areas such as employment, migration,
social housing and cooperation with LAs
Housing policy is of course within ODPM's gift,
and here the issue for Southport is affordable housing and the
tension around the scale of agreed house building figures, in
particular where local new regeneration-based house building would
help solve local problems without interfering with broader objectives
to focus on Brownfield and city-based Sustainable Communities
agendas. Some flexibility (which could be given a specific coastal
town policy focus) from ODPM and the Regional assemblies in this
respect would help.
Health issues are significant because of the
age profile (not specific to Southport), and the uplift generated
by visitor loading. Some recognition of this in PCT/NHS allocations
would be helpful—there is of course a related social impact.
Transient working population due to seasonal
jobs is an important economic development and employment issue
specific to coastal towns. Intervention around diversification,
better training, improving the quality and seasonal spread of
the tourism industry/local offer has impacted this issue. Much
of this is covered by standard DTI/RDA policy but at times it
appears difficult to get some agencies to recognise the particular
problems faced by coastal towns.
For example Southport acted as one of the case
studies in the 2003 Sheffield Hallam University study of the Seaside
Economy in Coastal Resorts which highlighted amongst many other
things strong growth in jobs being masked by the effects of in
bound commuter migration. This study provided a fresh robust understanding
around coastal town economic and employment issues. Since then
additional dynamic change driven by rapidly evolving transnational
migrant worker issues has come into play which is indicative of
the volatility of the labour market in coastal towns. The need
for cross agency aligned response is plain.
4. Is there a case for more specific regional
initiatives, and is enough attention paid to regional disparities
As covered above the NWDA has in fairness to
them tackled this head on through its "New Vision for Coastal
Towns" report (and allied reports). This has to some extent
fed through into funding allocations but it hasn't been without
issue. There is little in the way of general recognition of the
issue in the current RES. Although Southport is now, after considerable
lobbying, recognised as a "transformational activity"—we
wait to see how this will feed into continuing funding support
for the long term action that is required.
To some extent this discussion is partly being
transferred into the City Region and Northern Way process, but
this will not cover all the coastal towns. There is still a major
question about the future of the smaller Cumbrian coastal communities,
for instance.
5. Security of funding for coastal towns
This cuts across all funding programmes and
initiatives, and it would be very difficult to assure coastal
towns of any special treatment. However, remarks above about the
recognition of the range of real issues facing coastal towns would
at least provide opportunity to access funding, despite all the
obvious caveats about short-termism.
The requirement for "public structural
funding" to deliver key infrastructure projects is a common
characteristic of modern regeneration programmes but it is not
without problem. Many projects are built around multiple funding
streams that invariably have different criteria attached to them.
The complexity of securing and administrating funding streams,
which inevitably have differing measure and spend profiles let
alone output and outcome requirements, whilst developing and then
delivering projects is a major issue.
Whilst the use of public funds requires robust
transparency and justification one is at times left with the thought
that there must be a better way. Participation through the Regional
Development Agency's planning processes (RES, RSS etc) and the
emergent sub regional City Region Development Plans may provide
some opportunity for a rather more refined mechanism for delivering
appropriate, timely and joined up support.
6. Success of RDAs and other bodies in supporting
and developing the economies of coastal towns
See comments on NWDA above. Where we have been
able to access resources the result has been a resounding success.
This illustrates the need for recognition which at least offers
some chance of a more structured long term approach, rather than
having to battle at each stage.
One aspect worth noting is that coastal towns
often contain important elements of the country's heritage, and
this raises the question whether some of the National Lottery
funding streams should be given a specific "coastal"
focus (an example is the success of HLF work in Southport)
As set out in the "New Vision for NW Coastal
Resorts" Southport did have to decide if it had a destination
product future which it quickly did. Its role and position amongst
the RDA's wider suite of assets is something that cannot be decided
solely from a local or regional perspective and agreement is vital
between respective stakeholders. It is vital that clarity exists
from all sides as to the future strategic direction of the coastal
town and its role and future in the market place. Also critical
is clarity as to which agency is doing what and when to achieve
said direction. The RDA has a key role in this process utilising
mechanisms such as the New Vision for NW Coastal Resorts.
LESSONS LEARNT
SO FAR
The underlying logic employed in regenerating
Southport has always been that carefully designed public sector
supported regeneration activity including major infrastructure
projects would encourage private sector investment which would
then in turn generate some momentum to the renaissance of the
town. This has been borne out in the progress made so far.
One of the most important factors in making
progress has been the role of and leadership provided by the Local
Authority. Whilst there are examples of private sector led regeneration
it is clear that Southport's regeneration has been predominantly
led by the Council. This has particular relevance given the present
discussion around the role of LA's in tourism delivery.
A partnership approach is fundamental. Southport
has a number of robust and stable public/private partnerships
in place covering regeneration delivery (The Southport Partnership),
town centre management (Southport Business Enterprise) and marketing
(Southport Tourism Business Network. Alongside them of course
is the Local Strategic Partnership and the Council's democratic
process.
The alignment of funding streams and stakeholders
to projects can be a major issue especially when funding windows
are invariably time limited and therefore fragile. Understanding
and managing the risks endemic in wide scale regeneration is vital
when progressing complex regeneration projects or programmes.
Equally important is a clear appreciation of the determination
required to ensure successful completion.
The planning process has an ability to support
or suppress the regeneration process. It must be both aligned
and in tune with the overall strategic direction for effective
and efficient delivery.
This is increasingly true for the sub regional,
regional and national planning processes. If there is a lack of
understanding and agreement between the various partners driven
by inadequate strategic alignment and buy in then it is extremely
difficult to move progress. In this situation the private sector
confidence so vital to the sustainability of the regeneration
process is severely damaged. If this loss of confidence is allowed
to grow then any momentum built up is lost. Once lost it is far
more difficult to restart the process.
Genuinely successful regeneration of a coastal
town requires prolonged and sustained focus and support. Short
term or quick fix mentality is not an option. As evidenced in
many areas of life it is actually more cost effective to ensure
a critical mass of investment, both public and private, is in
place than to take a more short term ad hoc approach.
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