Coastal Handbook In the Press

The Coastal Regeneration Handbook launch in Margate makes Kent Online.

"Thanet council plans to use the event to showcase local success stories, with delegates offered a tour of key regeneration sites including the Turner Contemporary, Westwood Cross and the Port of Ramsgate."

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet_extra/news/2010/january/21/coastal_conference.aspx

Seasider Project - The Reading Rooms in Margate as case studies

The Reading Rooms boutique bed and breakfast in Margate were invited to speak at a national conference on Seaside regeneration in London last week. Here's the press release from the event (text also below) and also a 2MB pdf of the presentation with research on the marketing of transitional coastal towns. Interesting reading, so do have a go at downloading the pdf of the presentation.

More info will later be posted here at the Seasider website which is about to start development. I'll also post info on the other delegates who are working on interesting projects in other coastal towns such as Blackpool, Yarmouth, Scarborough, Dover, Folkestone.

That wonderful youtube viral from Blackpool last year. Lovely.

Press Release Jan 14th 2010

CREATIVE SOLUTION FOR SEASIDE TOWNS IN TRANSITION

Key figures from seaside towns, culture and regeneration specialists, London organisations and the private sector gathered in Shoreditch on the 11/12 January to consult on innovative ways of promoting the seaside cultural offer to a new generation of 'Urban Creatives' through the Seasider project.

Private and public sector joined together to hear the now famous operators of The Reading Rooms in Margate, Liam Nabb and Louise Oldfield, give their exciting perspective on a changing market for the coast and where they feel current promotional activity falls short in speaking to this key future market. Kate Staley of Blackpool, a town which is leading the field in smart seaside promotion, agreed with the identification of this group as the key new target market for seaside towns, saying, “There's great value in being specific....I have to say I think you have got [the target market] spot on.”

Conference attendees, including representatives from RDAs, Local Authority Partnerships, Town Regeneration and Cultural Advisors and the private sector were united in identifying the need for an independent approach to attract the 'Apple Mac' generation to the growing seaside offer where their spending power, enterprise and long term investment potential could reap huge dividends both in terms of tourism and long term regeneration plans. Chenine Bhathena, London 2012 Creative Programmer at the Greater London Authority suggested “the programme could play a key role in bringing to light alternative cultural activities that already exist in coastal towns, creating new cultural trails”. Nick Taylor, Renaissance Manager for Scarborough, currently Europe's most enterprising place, said “we need to speak to this group now to bring enterprise to the fore in Seaside towns, and for them flourish in the next decade and beyond.”

The meeting proposed that Seasider should reposition the seaside as an aspirational and interesting destination for this group to explore and potentially move to, with a number of attendees noting that an incomplete, or 'edgy' offer is actually attractive to this group, ideal for seaside towns in transition. Early thinking for the project was met with enthusiasm, with the suggestion that it would complement more traditional target markets and marketing strategies.

There was also agreement that the timing is absolutely right for this type of initiative, “it's a question of now,” said Liam Nabb of The Reading Rooms.

The Seasider team (Eddie Bridgeman and Hidden Cities) are now investigating sites in London for creative partnership projects between the Seaside and the capital city, a wide ranging PR campaign and peer to peer website. For further information please contact info@seasider.co.uk

Coastal Regeneration Handbook Launch Details

In case anyone hasn't downloaded the flyer for the launch event of the Coastal Regeneration Handbook Launch (previously referred to as the Coastal Community Handbook Launch on this blog).

Below is the text from the flyer. The event is £75 for two days and £40 for the one.

Here's what what the flyer says:

Keynote speaker
Dr Phyllis Starkey MP
Chair of the Select Committee
enquiry into Coastal Towns 2007
Presentations and Q & A
on coastal regeneration by the main political parties
Presentations and Q & A
on coastal futures, enterprise and health
Leaders, CXO, practitioners
on coastal futures and coastal solutions

" An opportunity for all those concerned about the future of our seaside resorts to contribute to
the national debate on new approaches to Coastal Regeneration while taking a first hand look at the approaches and success stories, in Thanet."

Dear Delegate,
We are pleased to announce the Coastal Alliance Conference on 27 and 28 January 2010 when Dr Phyllis Starkey MP will attend as keynote speaker for the national launch of the much awaited Coastal Regeneration Handbook and website.

Conference Objectives
Nationally launch the handbook and website

Consolidate the considerable evidence on coastal resort issues

Establish national coastal regeneration topic groups

Establish post launch events for enterprise, planning and health

Media coverage for coastal resort issues

Delegates Can Expect
The launch of the first Coastal regeneration Handbook and the related Website

An update on national coastal regeneration developments by Dr Starkey

The views on coastal resort regeneration by the three main political parties

A full debate on the future of coastal regeneration

Help form national coastal regeneration topic groups

To help consolidate the CCA

The Coastal Communities Alliance
The CCA is a virtual group of coastal local authorities and organisations that came into being in 2007 in response to the Government’s initial rejection of the recommendations of the Select
Committee Inquiry into Coastal Towns.

The CCA objectives are to articulate, lobby and promote new thinking and solutions for the complex socio - economic problems existing in coastal areas.

The “Coastal Regeneration Handbook ...work in progress!” is part of that process
and, like coastal regeneration, has been produced on a shoestring!

The Coastal Regeneration Handbook
The primary objective of the Coastal Regeneration Handbook is to reduce deprivation and improve the quality of life in coastal resorts by increasing the effectiveness of coastal regeneration practitioners. The handbook will seek to achieve this by:

• Stimulating new thinking and approaches for the development of local solutions
to entrenched coastal resort problems.

• Clarifying “who’s who” and “who’s doing what” in coastal regeneration.

• Improving the knowledge, effectiveness and cooperation of coastal regeneration practitioners and the national, regional and local organisations that support the development of coastal communities.

Conference Programme
Wednesday 27 January
1.00pm Delegates Assemble Winter Gardens,
Seaside Bar (Parking available on lower
promenade – 5 mins taxi from Railway Station)
Registration
Buffet lunch
2.15pm Tour
(Delegates to pre-book their choice of tour)
a) Entertainment Past, Present and Future.
Cultural regeneration in Margate
b) Economic Regeneration in Thanet,
industrial estates, shopping developments,
port, airport, university.
4.00pm Delegates return Walpole Bay Hotel, Cliftonville
Afternoon Tea
7.00pm Reception: Networking & opportunity
to ‘meet the authors’
7.30pm Dinner (Venue to be confirmed)
Welcome by Richard Samuel (Chief Executive,
TCD) and Ivan Annibal (CCA)
Response Professor John Walton,
(Co-Editor Coastal Regeneration Handbook)
9.45 pm Close

Thursday 28 January
9.00am Coffee/pastries and registration:
Margate Winter Gardens
9.30am Welcome by Conference Chairman
Richard Samuel, (Chief Executive TDC)
and Ivan Annibal (CCA)
09.45 am Keynote speech Dr Phyllis Starkey M.P
Q and A to Dr Starkey MP
10.15am Presentation x Conservative MP
10.30am Presentation x Labour MP
10.45am Presentation x Lib Dem MP
11.00am Q and A to the three MPs
11.15 am Coffee and biscuits
11.45am Plenary.
Review of handbook and website, creation
of topic groups, CCA structure and
resourcing, Q & A session.
12.30pm Break for lunch.
+ Opportunity to visit exhibitions
1.30pm Presentation and Q & A
Coastal Health - a spa too far? Kent PCT
2.00pm Presentation
Can the resort be enterprised?
CCA and Wood Holmes Group
2.15pm Presentation
What future the resort?
CCA and Handbook Contributors
2.30pm Plenary.
3.15pm Closing remarks.

Accommodation
Both of the hotels listed are within walking distance of the Winter Gardens, Margate and
offer a delegate’s rate of £50 single and £60 double occupancy including full breakfast

Smith’s Court Hotel
43 Rooms, Victorian Hotel 3 Star

Walpole Bay Hotel and Museum
41 Rooms, As featured on the Hotel Inspector
To book or to find our more about places
to stay in Thanet Visit www.visitthanet.co.uk
or call 0870 264 6111

Travel
Margate is situated on the southeastern tip of Kent. Excellent road and rail links from London means that getting here is quick and easy, even the continent is just a hop across the Channel, as we are closer to France than our county town of Maidstone.

By Road
Excellent road links with the M20 and M2 motorways close by provide easy links from London and its airports via the M25 orbital motorway. Adequate parking to the rear of the Winter Gardens on the Lower Promenade.

By Rail
There are frequent trains between London Victoria and Margate as well as Charing
Cross, and Ramsgate. Journey times are approximately 1 hour 50 minutes (Victoria) and 2 hours (Charing Cross).

National Rail enquiries
Tel: +44 (0) 8457 48 49 50
Tel: +44 (0) 845 000 2211
(impaired access information)
Textphone +44 (0) 845 605 0600
www.nationalrail.co.uk

Booking Details
Reservation forms and payment must be received by: 12 January 2010 latest.
An earlier call indicating your intentions
to 01843 577638 or 577167 or e-mail
to wendy.morris@thanet.gov.uk or
gillian.shepherd@thanet.gov.uk
would be very much appreciated.
Two day conference fee - £75.00.
(10% Reduction on bookings for two or
more delegates from the same organisation)
One day only fee - £40.00
(no discounts apply)
Please return your reservation form with
your cheque made payable to Thanet
District Council at the address shown on
the reservation form or call us on 01843
577638 to pay by credit or debit card.

Munro Cobb Building

Part of TDC's Window of Opportunity project that organises colourful shop window displays and hoardings has moved to Cliftonville. Here is the artist Dan Bass and the 140ft work at the old Munro Cobb building on Northdown Road.

Margate and Cliftonville Housing Renewal Strategy 2009

Another housing strategy document is up for consultation until Feb 19th. Email comments about the Margate and Cliftonville Housing Renewal Strategy 2009 to Ashley.Stacey@thanet.gov.uk.

Again, hardly any mention of tourism and the reverting the use of ex-guest accommodation to guest accommodation from HMOs. Which is quite odd, given this would solve the lack of quality guest beds in the area and be a solution for what to do with houses that are empty and or badly used because they were built for that purpose.

I've posted the 1MB PDF file of the 28 page document for download here.

The Margate Renewal Partnership Framework and Implementation 2009-2011 document is available on their website here and as an archive here.

Have Your Say: Core Strategy Preferred Options Consultation - Closes Jan 18th

Last chance to comment on the 200+ pages that passes as consultation on Thanet's Core Strategy document.

If you too, like me, feel overwhelmed and a little phased at the trouble it takes to print off a whole document of this size. Perhaps you might like to edit your own version of what other residents have put together. Obviously, your own words and views are better. But to give you an idea:

In a complex environment that has to take into account county, governmental and global issues. Yet locally, it could be quite simple – if only we persist in utilising the enthusiasm and energy of people who choose to live in Thanet.

As the Thanet Local Development Framework states, we too are keen to live and work in a Thanet that we are proud of – one that is vibrant, interesting, and fun to be in. Such a Thanet would embrace diverse groups of people, be forward thinking and have, at its core, the concept of sustainability. It would therefore have a “green” outlook, making the most of its natural environment, safeguarding its natural assets including making better use of, and developing, the people who live here. Our Thanet would have, at the forefront of its policies and actions, the needs of permanent residents and workers. Anything that works well for these groups will attract tourists, often family and friends, and so be an attractor of more people who would contribute to “Our Vibrant Thanet”, thus improving the life experience of all.

We believe that the typical consultation exercise, including this one, inherently has too many barriers. It becomes rhetoric when the people who live and work in Thanet are asked to read through a document of approximately 250 pages, on a screen – if they have a computer – or print it out themselves using a whole printer cartridge. Essentially, it’s an invitation to become cynical, feel excluded from decision-making, and become mistrustful of the Council. We would like consultation to happen in a way that engages people and allows them to input positively into the vision for Thanet.

We feel irritated that major decisions are often presented as almost a fait accompli eg developing Manston Airport for commercial flights. Then, “consultation” seems empty. We recognise that, at this stage, it might be difficult to overturn such major decisions. And, if “Our Vibrant Thanet” is to come about, with an engaged population, then any future changes must come from a well-informed community.

To understand the situation we experience in Thanet, consider the metaphor of the sea. Iconic developments, such as Dreamland and the Turner Centre, are the big ships sailing on the sea’s surface. They are very visible. When movement happens in such iconic developments, it’s easy for them to become the sole focus of a Council’s attention. Meanwhile, life on the ocean bed, and the coral reef, can become damaged by the big ships. The ocean bed and the coral reef are far less visible, and therefore less attention is paid to them. So too, we experience a lack of day-to-day action on key things that make a difference to the lives of local people eg rubbish collections, support for small businesses through the interpretation of the grey areas given over to Council discretion. We are keen to hear what will be done to ensure this focus on the big ships will change very soon – so that protection and enhancement of the sea bed and the coral reef, ie our experiences as enthusiastic and skilled residents and workers, becomes as important.

We believe that, in order to get these day-to-day changes, a review needs to happen of the systems within TDC. To date, when the Council isn't attending to the iconic developments, the focus seems to be on “deprivation”. It is this that is used to measure everything else. For as long as deprivation is the focus and the measure, then “deprivation” will continue. For example, we did a search for “bed & breakfast” on TDC’s website and the Lewisham Council website. (The London Borough of Lewisham is one which has been successfully regenerated.)

TDC’s website lists – 9 entries including

1. Accommodating homeless people

2. Help with rent

3. Homelessness

4. Housing benefits

5. NO mention of tourist / visitor accommodation

Lewisham Council’s website lists 17 entries including

1. Guest house and accommodation for overseas visitors and students

2. Tourism and travel

3. Where to stay in Lewisham

4. ONE mention of using empty homes to rehouse homelessness families

So it becomes in the interests of those with jobs in “the deprivation industry” to have deprivation continue. Thanet would lose a great deal of funding if deprivation were to vanish soon. We are therefore concerned that a substantial proportion of people in Thanet are missing out on day-to-day connected and positive initiatives that focus on the wealth of Thanet and not its deprivation. Unless systems are changed to include more positive actions to accommodate the vision of “Our Vibrant Thanet”, we are concerned that we will simply find ourselves where we are now … no matter how many years down the line.

To view a copy of the full Core Strategy document and complete our response form:

· Visit http://consult.thanet.gov.uk/
(Simply register your details once for access to this, and all future planning policy consultations)

A summary of the Core Strategy is also available - view the Core Strategy Summary

How to get around Margate area on foot

I've been thinking about how car based Margate is in terms of access to the main tourist spots. How does one get from Margate seafront to Botany Bay, Kingsgate and Joss Bay without a car?

The bus routes take people on shopping trips to Westwood Cross and serve housing estates so meander a lot in land.

If we had a lovely sea walk the same standard as Minnis Bay to Reculver, we would be able to provide a great pedestrian offering to visitors. The walk along by the Cliftonville Lido and Palm Bay leaves much to be desired. It's no wonder that families are not attracted to use it. Yet this stretch of seafront used to be a quality beach experience. It boasts stunning views and is a nice length of walk for day trippers. If we can join up the attractions people will open businesses such as outdoors sports and also find it more appealing to move to the vicinity.

Are there any plans to improve the seafront from Margate to Botany Bay?

This would presumably fit with the overall regeneration plans for Margate and Cliftonville.