Britain’s rundown seaside towns: How our coastal towns are among the poorest in the country with deprivation levels of nearly 27 per cent
- Government figures show rundown seaside towns continue to deteriorate
- Twenty five of the larger resorts have higher than average deprivation
- Blackpool has suffered the most, with Clacton and Hastings not far behind
By BECKY BARROW
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English seaside resorts are among the most deprived places in the country, blighted by high unemployment, poor health and riddled with crime, official figures revealed yesterday.
The report, from the Office for National Statistics, lays bare the crisis facing resorts from Blackpool to Clacton, Ramsgate to Margate.
It comes after a recent report, from the Centre for Social Justice, said seaside towns have become ‘dumping grounds’ following the destruction of their economies by cheap foreign travel.
Attraction: While Blackpool remains England's most popular tourist destination, it is a shadow of its former self
Better days: The once glorious Regency Hotel in Ramsgate is badly in need of a facelift
A fish and chip shop in Blackpool which has the highest level of deprivation than any other coastal town
Signs at the entrance to a typical Bed and Breakfast guest house hotel in Blackpool
Resorts which used to be thriving have become heavily populated by welfare claimants, those with substance abuse and mental health problems and patients leaving the care system, it said.
The ONS looked at England’s 57 biggest seaside resorts, based on the size of population. To be included in the list, the resort must have a resident population of at least 15,000.
Towns which it investigated include the ‘big two’ - Brighton and Bournemouth - as well as many other household names such as Weston-super-Mare, Scarborough, Skegness and Whitstable.
Many popular seaside resorts, such as the Prime Minister’s current holiday destination, Polzeath, and other idyllic Cornish resorts, were not included due to their small resident population.
Seen better days: Pier Avenue, in Clacton on Sea, Essex, could do with a sprucing up
Run down: Homes in Jaywick near Clacton-on-Sea in Essex
‘The likely size of the tourist population on a sunny, summer weekend’ was ignored, the ONS said.
Overall, larger seaside destinations, such as Clacton, Ramsgate and Hartlepool, are more deprived than the rest of England typically is. ‘Larger’ resorts have a minimum population of 40,500 And Blackpool is the most deprived of them all, based on the ONS’s assessment of key measures of deprivation such as higher unemployment, lower incomes, poor health and more crime.
Among smaller seaside destinations, Skegness and Ingoldmells, the site of Billy Butlins’s first holiday camp in 1936, is the most deprived resort.
The ONS’s report highlights how pockets of deprivation exist in England, next door to exclusive and much-coveted destinations.
Skegness was also among the 57 seaside resorts the ONS looked at
Among smaller seaside destinations, Skegness and Ingoldmells, the site of Billy Butlins's first holiday camp in 1936, is the most deprived resort
For example, Blackpool is a short drive from Lytham St Annes, which is one of the least deprived of the 57 seaside destinations beaten only by the more exclusive Christchurch in Dorset.
Lytham St Annes is internationally renowned for golf, particularly the Royal Lytham and St Annes Gold Club, one of the host courses for the Open Championship.
Meanwhile, Blackpool has introduced a free school breakfast for all its 12,000 primary school pupils following fears they were arriving for school too hungry to concentrate properly.
The Centre for Social Justice’s report found more than 40 per cent of children were fatherless in areas of Blackpool, while house prices have plunged to an average price of just £77,000.
Old fashioned: An amusement arcade in Clacton-on-Sea which was the second most deprived coastal town
A pie shop in Clacton-on-Sea which is considered the second most deprived town in the UK
A Treasury spokesman said: ‘These 2010 statistics show that, under the last administration, too many seaside towns and villages suffered from economic decline and neglect.
‘There is huge potential for our coastal towns to welcome new industries and to diversify their economies so they can become year-round success stories.
‘The Government’s Coastal Communities Fund was set up in 2011 to help these towns tap into new business opportunities that will create jobs and boost skills that benefit the whole community.’
Shabby: Pelham Arcade in Hastings which came in third of most deprived coastal towns in the UK
Derelict: The once popular beach huts of St Leonards in Hastings are now boarded up and abandoned
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2398822/How-Britains-coastal-towns-deprived-country.html#ixzz2cg5hm5GA
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CT Studd.
Studd, C.T. – In 1884, C.T. Studd, one of the Cambridge Seven, felt convicted, “How could I spend the best hours of my life in working for myself and for the honour and pleasures of this world while thousands and thousands of souls are perishing every day without having heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, going down to Christless and hopeless graves?” (John Pollock. The Cambridge Seven, 2nd ed. Great Britain: Marshalls, 1985, 75.)
“Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”
Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.
If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.
Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man.
Amy Carmichael.
Does it not stir up our hearts to go forth and help them, does it not make us long to leave our luxury, our exceeding abundant light, and go to them that sit in darkness?" - Amy Carmichael
William Booth.
Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world." William Booth.
“While women weep, as they do now,
I'll fight
While little children go hungry, as they do now,
I'll fight
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now,
I'll fight
While there is a drunkard left,
While there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
While there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!”
― William Booth
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