In the case of Portsmouth which will be hit by Covid in the B and B and hotel trade and by a reduction in international students at the Uni…I would suggest a faster train link to London taking it from an hour 20 minutes to under an hour. This would make it attractive as a commuter town for those unable to afford property prices in London but who have jobs there. Also it encourages retirees to lo cate there- retaining their access to the metropolis’s cultural activities. Music festivals like Victorious are putting Pompey on the map as a great place for summer leisure along with farmers markets and food festivals…restuarants providing a more upmarket eating experience based on fresh produce and seafood need to be encouraged as do boutiques and craft shops.
You may not be aware Helen, that the reason the journey to Portsmouth is slower than that to Southampton, despite being a shorter distance, is that the line was built earlier, when locomotives were less powerful, and therefore had to take a more circuitous route to avoid gradients. The penalty of being an early adopter! Journey times used to be shorter 20 years ago but were lengthened to give the train operators a better chance of meeting punctuality targets. It might be possible to take 10-15 minutes off the journey time if more home working leads to lesser demand and therefore fewer trains on the line.
Ah Smuff, an awkward to get to island, with a god awful ‘beach’, that comes from the Portsmouth girl sat next to me. As for the uni, it might be good if less s-too-dense arrive and it drives the availability of rentable housing up, and the cost of renting down… Too many HMO landlords want easy student money and not to rent to local people.
Well Neil..Ive come to appreciate Pompey more since moving to London years ago. The walk along Southsea beach down to Old Portsmouth and Gunwharf is really pleasant..the pubs do some real Hampshire ales. International students are a cash cow everywhere..but theyve built alot of Uni accomodation in Ports.for them.
Tom Hawk
3 years ago
Local councils have not helped themselves. They seem to have taken to the C19 regulations like pigs in shit enjoying every opportunity to impose restrictions and regulstions on order to force people to comply with their instructions. My town council, in conjunction with the local police community sergeant closed a road without going through the proper process. That is a criminal offence in its own right, but they were insistent they are in authority.
The overriding sense has been to impose lockdown as if that is the objective rather than the means. Thus when the PM announced an easing of restrictions, Councillor Robbinson’s (of Southend Council) heart sank. The council had had weeks to have everything ready, but it seems they were concentrating on imposing lockdown instead of preparing for when it finally came to an end.
Meanwhile, even though during lockdown the seaside towns are dying on their feet the Council operated parking Nazis are busy raking in cash flow, because they can. No one asks the hapless victim of a parking ticket, will this fine influence your decision about coming back, (to get stuck with another parking fine?)?
I suggest that Councils in our coastal resorts need a different attitude to visitors as a starting point.
Michael Reardon
3 years ago
Maybe some redirection of resources away from supporting the aviation industry to UK resort towns as we rebuild our economy. And continuing to diversify over time away from traditional tourism as there is no short cut.
ruthengreg
3 years ago
Sorry to say but every industry is effected in much the same way as Seaside’s. Only the lucky few are not going to feel more than a pinch of this. I could be that few. Retirement yes I bored etc no theatre holidays but my income is unaffected. My daughter is in Teaching loads of problems but a job yes. My son is in global retail big worries. I feel it only right and proper that for a time we pensioners should do our bit. I am not rich ex bus driver and we have a good life on joint pensions in 20k range I don’t see why I shouldn’t forgo the Pension triple lock for 5yrs.
Tom Hawk
3 years ago
Many years ago a Government Minister tried to describe our seaside towns as the pearl necklace in our heritage. I always thought it was a very apt description because it showed up the real weakness of seaside towns.
What is the most important part of a pearl necklace? Hint it is not the pearls, … It’s the string that holds the pearls in place. Without the string a pearl necklace is simply a handfull of stones that gets lost.
Seaside towns all suffer from the same physical problem. They are at the end of a dead end road where half the surrounding area is populated by fish and seafood. (Fish don’t buy much so they make bad customers). Many are also isolated by rivers on each side. So businesses have only half the potential custommer base as ones inland. On top of that business located in a seaside town has to travel past their competition to get to their customers. That puts them at an automatic productivity disadvantage. The only compensation is selling at a reduced price.
The solution is quite easy, but it won’t happen. A coast road that links coatal towns to each other and makes it possible to trade directly with each other.
Tom Hawk
3 years ago
Many years ago a Government Minister tried to describe our seaside towns as the pearl necklace in our heritage. I always thought it was a very apt description because it showed up the real weakness of seaside towns.
What is the most important part of a pearl necklace? Hint it is not the pearls, … It’s the string that holds the pearls in place. Without the string a pearl necklace is simply a handfull of stones that gets lost.
Seaside towns all suffer from the same physical problem. They are at the end of a dead end road where half the surrounding area is populated by fish and seafood. (Fish don’t buy much so they make bad customers). Many are also isolated by rivers on each side. So businesses have only half the potential custommer base as ones inland. On top of that business located in a seaside town has to travel past their competition to get to their customers. That puts them at an automatic productivity disadvantage. The only compensation is selling at a reduced price.
The solution is quite easy, but it won’t happen. A coast road that links coatal towns to each other and makes it possible to trade directly with each other.
Try driving down the 27 in Sussex at 5pm and you will then understand why the local towns suffer so much. Big towns like Worthing and Eastbourne are connected by a road that is little more than a rutted cart track in places.
Kathy Lang
3 years ago
“of the ten areas with the largest increases in unemployment benefit claims, nine were coastal” Yes – but one of those nine is not a town but a whole county – Cornwall. The problems in farming and fishing, the major employers outside tourism, are seriously hit from other directions. And when the trouble covers so wide an area, the scope for “going elsewhere” is very limited. It’s a beautiful county with its own culture and customs too – but you can’t eat the view!
Hmm poor white communities neglected yet again by the self appointed Liberal/left inteligencia.
yes
“White lives don’t matter”?
Apparently
In the case of Portsmouth which will be hit by Covid in the B and B and hotel trade and by a reduction in international students at the Uni…I would suggest a faster train link to London taking it from an hour 20 minutes to under an hour.
This would make it attractive as a commuter town for those unable to afford property prices in London but who have jobs there. Also it encourages retirees to lo cate there- retaining their access to the metropolis’s cultural activities.
Music festivals like Victorious are putting Pompey on the map as a great place for summer leisure along with farmers markets and food festivals…restuarants providing a more upmarket
eating experience based on fresh produce and seafood need to be encouraged as do boutiques and craft shops.
You may not be aware Helen, that the reason the journey to Portsmouth is slower than that to Southampton, despite being a shorter distance, is that the line was built earlier, when locomotives were less powerful, and therefore had to take a more circuitous route to avoid gradients. The penalty of being an early adopter!
Journey times used to be shorter 20 years ago but were lengthened to give the train operators a better chance of meeting punctuality targets. It might be possible to take 10-15 minutes off the journey time if more home working leads to lesser demand and therefore fewer trains on the line.
I didnt know that Dougie.
Cheers. Helen.
Ah Smuff, an awkward to get to island, with a god awful ‘beach’, that comes from the Portsmouth girl sat next to me.
As for the uni, it might be good if less s-too-dense arrive and it drives the availability of rentable housing up, and the cost of renting down… Too many HMO landlords want easy student money and not to rent to local people.
Well Neil..Ive come to appreciate Pompey more since moving to London years ago. The walk along Southsea beach down to Old Portsmouth and Gunwharf is really pleasant..the pubs do some real Hampshire ales.
International students are a cash cow everywhere..but theyve built alot of Uni accomodation in Ports.for them.
Local councils have not helped themselves. They seem to have taken to the C19 regulations like pigs in shit enjoying every opportunity to impose restrictions and regulstions on order to force people to comply with their instructions. My town council, in conjunction with the local police community sergeant closed a road without going through the proper process. That is a criminal offence in its own right, but they were insistent they are in authority.
The overriding sense has been to impose lockdown as if that is the objective rather than the means. Thus when the PM announced an easing of restrictions, Councillor Robbinson’s (of Southend Council) heart sank. The council had had weeks to have everything ready, but it seems they were concentrating on imposing lockdown instead of preparing for when it finally came to an end.
Meanwhile, even though during lockdown the seaside towns are dying on their feet the Council operated parking Nazis are busy raking in cash flow, because they can. No one asks the hapless victim of a parking ticket, will this fine influence your decision about coming back, (to get stuck with another parking fine?)?
I suggest that Councils in our coastal resorts need a different attitude to visitors as a starting point.
Maybe some redirection of resources away from supporting the aviation industry to UK resort towns as we rebuild our economy. And continuing to diversify over time away from traditional tourism as there is no short cut.
Sorry to say but every industry is effected in much the same way as Seaside’s. Only the lucky few are not going to feel more than a pinch of this. I could be that few. Retirement yes I bored etc no theatre holidays but my income is unaffected. My daughter is in Teaching loads of problems but a job yes. My son is in global retail big worries.
I feel it only right and proper that for a time we pensioners should do our bit. I am not rich ex bus driver and we have a good life on joint pensions in 20k range I don’t see why I shouldn’t forgo the Pension triple lock for 5yrs.
Many years ago a Government Minister tried to describe our seaside towns as the pearl necklace in our heritage. I always thought it was a very apt description because it showed up the real weakness of seaside towns.
What is the most important part of a pearl necklace? Hint it is not the pearls, … It’s the string that holds the pearls in place. Without the string a pearl necklace is simply a handfull of stones that gets lost.
Seaside towns all suffer from the same physical problem. They are at the end of a dead end road where half the surrounding area is populated by fish and seafood. (Fish don’t buy much so they make bad customers). Many are also isolated by rivers on each side. So businesses have only half the potential custommer base as ones inland. On top of that business located in a seaside town has to travel past their competition to get to their customers. That puts them at an automatic productivity disadvantage. The only compensation is selling at a reduced price.
The solution is quite easy, but it won’t happen. A coast road that links coatal towns to each other and makes it possible to trade directly with each other.
Many years ago a Government Minister tried to describe our seaside towns as the pearl necklace in our heritage. I always thought it was a very apt description because it showed up the real weakness of seaside towns.
What is the most important part of a pearl necklace? Hint it is not the pearls, … It’s the string that holds the pearls in place. Without the string a pearl necklace is simply a handfull of stones that gets lost.
Seaside towns all suffer from the same physical problem. They are at the end of a dead end road where half the surrounding area is populated by fish and seafood. (Fish don’t buy much so they make bad customers). Many are also isolated by rivers on each side. So businesses have only half the potential custommer base as ones inland. On top of that business located in a seaside town has to travel past their competition to get to their customers. That puts them at an automatic productivity disadvantage. The only compensation is selling at a reduced price.
The solution is quite easy, but it won’t happen. A coast road that links coatal towns to each other and makes it possible to trade directly with each other.
Try driving down the 27 in Sussex at 5pm and you will then understand why the local towns suffer so much. Big towns like Worthing and Eastbourne are connected by a road that is little more than a rutted cart track in places.
“of the ten areas with the largest increases in unemployment benefit claims, nine were coastal” Yes – but one of those nine is not a town but a whole county – Cornwall. The problems in farming and fishing, the major employers outside tourism, are seriously hit from other directions. And when the trouble covers so wide an area, the scope for “going elsewhere” is very limited. It’s a beautiful county with its own culture and customs too – but you can’t eat the view!