Drop in the ocean

Coastal towns and ‘levelling up’

THE MOVE to invest £1m sprucing up Scarborough, Whitby and Filey’s seafronts is a significant undertaking by the area’s borough council when its finances are already so stretched.

It will also be money wellspent; the aesthetic appeal of these resorts, and many more, is critical to creating a good first impression with tourists and visitors who have no shortage of potential ‘staycation’ locations across Britain.

Yet it is a proverbial ‘drop in the ocean’ – or the North Sea in this instance – when it comes to the overall investment that all coastal communities do require if they’re to prosper again.

Just like Yorkshire’s rural heartlands, they continue to pay the price for years, if not decades, of under-funding from successive London governments that have failed to recognise specific demographic trends like an ageing population and shortage of opportunities for school-leavers and young people.

After all, this is the type of policy challenge that should be integral to the Government’s so-called ‘levelling up’ mission – but, once again, the country is still none the wiser on the specific objectives of Ministers, how they intend to monitor progress and recognise that coastal towns have different needs to larger metropolitan areas.

Together with the impact of erosion along the Holderness coast, the need for a dedicated Minister for the Coast and Flooding, as previously set out by The Yorkshire Post, has never been greater. As such, it is to be hoped that the Government revisits this idea – and then begins to work with authorities like Scarborough Borough Council – to ensure coastal towns are not left all at sea by Whitehall’s indifference.