Posted by K Roker
Wanted - a New years resolution for Swanage
This is the time of year when we all dutifully read those joke books we had for Christmas. There used to be a series "101 uses for a dead ..." and I often wondered whether I should offer to compile the volume for dead "family resorts".
Here is a suggestion for anyone who is good at thinking of New Years resolutions. Can you think of a better way of describing Swanage than "family resort". I cringe whenever I hear it.
Now that we have a government which thinks all our kids should get an education and not go on holiday in term time its only possible for the place to be a "family resort" for 6 weeks of the year plus half term. The income from this isn't enough to keep a cat alive.
Zero points for the slogan "let Swanage be your last resort" and please no references to "god's waiting room" as he has several of them.
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5 comments:
How about "Swanage 365"
This is intended to communicate Swanage as a thriving all year round ecomomy attracting private (or public money) to be invested in the town for the benefit of the town and the community.
This could then be developed into a decision making framework - Does the decision about to be taken help facilitate/create a sustainable ecomomy 365 days of the year in Swanage? If not should it be revised?
This could also be used to create some visionary long term objectives and therefore help develop a strategy to get there.
I for one do not believe that the solution will be found by depending on tourism or government backed schemes. Unfortunately, speaking from limited experience most private enterprises within the town appear to be either killed at birth by planning or lack of affordable and available commercial space.
I certainly agee with you about the need for business space in Swanage. I am not convinced that railing against the planning system is helpful. We are one step off being in a national park. If Purbeck had been a few sizes larger it certainly would be one.
At the risk of spreading New Year gloom we have to recognise that private investment will go where the return is best if it is allowed to. At the moment that means residential developments and in particular second homes. At £300,000 and up for a pokey little two bedroom flat with no garden who can blame them.
Regrettably the planning system has always been reactive. If parts of the town had been zoned for office/commercial use from the 1940s there would be less of a problem now but when planning came in nobody thought they needed to plan for a post tourist future.
In the short term I wonder whether we should all be asking our councillors to suggest to the owners of the old grammar school that it would make excellent serviced office accommodation. This is what we are especially short of. You can find office based businesses being carried on in all sorts of nooks and crannies. As Poundbury demonstrates it is possible to have this sort of work space in a residential area without creating major problems. The limited amount of industrial space can then be kept for activities which need to be well away from homes.
I agree with some of your points, but there is one point I would like to raise - It is my opinion that the town actually needs light industrial commercial space rather than office space.
I am not sure that we are in the post-tourist era, but if the town is to have a viable economy all year round it needs more than just Tourism. Have you ever been to the Isle of Arran (West coast of Scotland)? I think it is a fine example of how a community in an isolated location has managed to create wealth by blending light commercial operations with tourism.
I think the resolution should come from our Local Authorities. With a little good will and vision Purbeck could become really good. The haemorrhaging of bright, interesting and skilful people could be brought to an end. I would suggest something along the lines of: "to create an environment in which enterprise will flourish".
We are agreed that Swanage desperately needs workspace. The distinction between office and workshop space is a bit artificial now. The planning system very sensibly has a category for general business use which combines them. I have met a number of young people who want to start businesses in Swanage in the last few years and in the initial stages they need somewhere with a desk, computer and phone and with a room where they can meet potential clients/customers. Their credibility nosedives if they have to do this at home. Several of these have been design based businesses which may subsequently need production space. I suspect they soldier on using the kitchen table and get in touch with PDC when they need an industrial unit. I think they have to be offered space at an earlier stage.
Arran is an interesting case. What happened there was that the defence people installed a very fast internet connection to the island and then it was made available to other users. This encouraged the development of call centres and businesses which could make use of a fast data link, for example a firm which processes American doctor's notes and gets them back overnight because of the time difference. The point though is that this came about because public investment, albeit unintentional, in the infrastucture enabled it to happen.
Have a look at my post about PDC and (lack of) vision. Its a real problem recognised by the National Audit Office.
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