Examination of Witnesses (Questions 112-119)
MR JAMES
HASSETT AND
MR PETER
HAMPSON
4 JULY 2006
Q112 Chair: Can I ask you to introduce
yourselves and the organisation you are from. Mr Hassett, of course,
some of us have met already at Exmouth?
Mr Hampson: My name is Peter Hampson.
I am the Director of the British Resorts and Destinations Association,
which was recently renamed. It was previously the British Resorts
Association. I have been a Director of that association since
1993.
Mr Hassett: I am James Hassett.
I am the Chief Executive of the Market and Coastal Towns Association,
which is an association that operates in the south-west of England.
Q113 Alison Seabeck: We have heard
and you have heard from Professor Fothergill that there is a case
to be made for special treatment for coastal areas and costal
towns. What, in your view, makes coastal towns unique?
Mr Hampson: I think it would be
difficult, having seen and read the evidence that has been produced
to you, not to realise that there are some interesting issues
revolving around coastal towns which would appear to be considerably
different. I would make the case that seaside towns do have a
future with a mixed economy but that there are special problems,
which you have had outlined to you in numerous pieces of evidence,
whether it be geographical, physical, economic or social, and
that those need to be recognised in terms of public policy. The
public policy that we see being put into place is adequate for
most situations, but in certain circumstances, and mainly in coastal
towns, they are acting as a barrier in some ways to the redevelopment
of those towns.
Mr Hassett: From my side it is
interesting because I deal with market towns as well as coastal
towns. Some of the issues that are raised certainly in the coastal
towns of the size I deal with, and you will appreciate I deal
with the very small towns with populations of between two and
25,000, are exacerbated by a coastal location rather than being
necessarily overtly unique. There are issues, for instance, around
the need for assistance because of the risk of flooding, particularly
in coastal areas, but if we looked at the subset levels, in a
low-level area you could find some analogy with that but it is
definitely exacerbated by that coastal location.
Q114 Alison Seabeck: Would you not
accept that, having listened to both your responses on that, that
this is like a piece of jelly. There are so many diverse reasons
why coastal towns and villages have problems, and they vary so
enormously from place to place and area to area that it is quite
difficult to pick out a single defining issue. Can you pick out
a single issue which is common across the piece that is not reflected
anywhere else inland?
Mr Hampson: I think in the written
evidence that we submitted we put to one side the smaller towns.
I think there is an issue about the scale and the economic impact,
and, yes, my organisation represents a lot of the bigger coastal
towns but it also represents a lot of the smaller coastal towns.
I think that you need to be hard-faced to say that there is an
issue of scale here and there are certain places where it is in
the public interest to actually concentrate on the larger towns
and, therefore, what tend to be the larger problems. Obviously
my colleague is not going to necessarily agree with that, but
I would tend to point to that as being perhaps a solution. There
are some fundamentals. I do not want to hog it, but there are
things around housing, access, recognition and the nature of how
programmes are being put together which perhaps, I can address
in a later question.
Mr Hassett: From my side the south-west
is relatively unique from an English perspective in terms of the
number of towns it has of this particular size. It obviously has
a huge coastline and has a number of towns that would fall into
the category that I would deal with, and when you aggregate those
up, as we have already heard today, it does not represent a significant
number of people. I think some of the issues that were raised
earlier that have been raised by my colleague here in terms of
the common threads are actually less prevalent in the small towns.
There is a particular nuance around a particular town, for instance,
that has had a particular history and there is a particular reason
why it is that shape, that form, has that particular economic
aspect, which we try as an association to listen to, but we have
less of a one-size-fits-all response to that.
Q115 Alison Seabeck: That said, are
there any common threads which link together those towns which
have successfully regenerated?
Mr Hassett: I think a lot of them
in my experience have almost decided on a unique selling point
in terms of deciding what they have got.
Q116 Alison Seabeck: Can you give
us an example?
Mr Hassett: Newquay really is
the classic one. They have turned round and decided that they
had a particular niche that they wanted to go for, which is lifestyle,
surfing, those kinds of aspects. They have promoted that very
heavily and have actually made themselves a destination for a
particular activity in terms of a niche within the tourist industry.
They have almost invented a USP for themselves. Lots of the towns
in the south-west, certainly through our particular process, are
looking for those USPs; they are trying to find out what makes
them distinctive.
Q117 Alison Seabeck: Could you explain
what that is?
Mr Hassett: Unique selling point.
Q118 Alison Seabeck: No. What is
Newquay, for those people here who may not be entirely aware of
it?
Mr Hassett: It is a reasonably
sized coastal town in the south-west that has very much built
a tourism industry based on surfing and adventure type holidays
in the south-west.
Q119 Mr Hands: How much of that is
due to the airport in Newquay and how much to the niche attraction?
Is Newquay's success actually down to the cheap and easy way of
getting there? I saw some fascinating figures comparing holidays
in English seaside towns and holidays in France and the expense
of going to an English seaside down is largely because of the
rail fare. How much of that is due to transport rather than a
niche activity?
Mr Hampson: I think the airport
is a factor. It is a publicity factor more than it is a reality
factor. The airline to Newquay does not carry enough people to
make that much of a difference. The fact that there is an airline
and people from London can fly to it gets an enormous amount of
publicity about Newquay being the hip and up and coming destination.
It is a factor, but it is a different issue: it is the difference
between reality and perception. Can I answer perhaps the question
that was put by the previous speaker? I think there is a unique
feature in all those places that are successful, and it is called
money. All of those places that are pulling themselves up have
had access to some sort of funding in the last six, seven eight
years. That is the key factor.
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