The Chief Medical Officer, in their annual report, presents to Government information or ‘surveillance’ about the health of England’s population, offering recommendations to both government and individual organisations as to how to improve the public health system.
In his 2021 report, published in July, Chris Whitty chose to report on health in coastal communities. It concluded that:
There are many reasons for poor health outcomes in coastal communities. The pleasant environment attracts older, retired citizens to settle, who inevitably have more and increasing health problems. An oversupply of guest housing has led to Houses of Multiple Occupation which lead to concentrations of deprivation and ill health. The sea is a benefit but also a barrier: attracting NHS and social care staff to peripheral areas is harder, catchment areas for health services are artificially foreshortened and transport is often limited, in turn limiting job opportunities. Many coastal communities were created around a single industry such as previous versions of tourism, or fishing, or port work that have since moved on, meaning work can often be scarce or seasonal.
Physical and natural environment? Demography? Housing? Transport? Employment? This, Sam Stafford thought, sounded like a good subject for exploration on a town planning-based podcast. What are the particular issues associated with planning for coastal communities? What distinguishes a successful coastal town from a less successful one? And what role does the planning system have in determining these outcomes?
Sam puts these questions to Louise Wood (@LWood_Cornwall), Service Director for Planning at Cornwall Council; Christopher Balch (@balchplyuni), Emeritus Professor at the University of Plymouth and Non-Executive Director at the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust; and Warren Lever (@ShapeThePlace), Senior Conservation & Design Officer at New Forest District Council.
Some accompanying reading.
Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021: health in coastal communities
'Imagination is key to the revival of Britain’s seaside towns'
Levelling up: The seaside town debating what change is needed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58248594
Select Committee on Regenerating Seaside Towns and Communities - The future of seaside towns
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldseaside/320/32004.htm#_idTextAnchor008
Higher education enables graduates to move to places with better career prospects – but this leads to brain drain from the North and coastal areas
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15621
Trusting the People: the case for community-powered conservatism
https://www.newlocal.org.uk/publications/trusting-people-community/
Blue Deal For Coastal Communities
https://neweconomics.org/campaigns/blue-new-deal
Some accompanying viewing.
Councillors Ray Cox and Roy Evans discuss efforts to regenerate Marine Way in Aldington-on-Sea
Some accompanying listening.
The Coral - Take me back to the summertime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IREwDVoh558
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners.
50 Shades episode also include the 'All Around the World' series, which is being led by friend of the podcast, Paul Smith.
Paul put it to Sam that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Planners here very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he chats with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can be learnt.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram, and his blogs can be found here (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter).
The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use the podcast or the YouTube channel for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam via [email protected].
Why Fifty Shades? Well, town and country planning is very much not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
