For over 600 years, a busy and varied market has traded every weekend in the seaside town of Bridlington: situated just a stone’s throw from the working harbour, this market remains one constant feature amidst the social change and economic development of the post-war years.
The residents of Bridlington, one of the prettiest seaside towns in the United Kingdom, are not oblivious to the challenges of securing investment and promoting English tourism.
Those challenges, however, are neither unique nor easily solved. They are mirrored across the country in hundreds of our seaside resorts, that have found themselves caught between holidaymakers opting for discount flights to the Mediterranean, and companies relocating their workforces nearer to inland markets or abroad to places with no minimum wage. On top of this, Bridlington has suffered a period of dwindling inward migration. Previously, those who retired to its picturesque coastline came from the nearby steel and mining industries, but these now no longer exist.
Four years ago a proposed marina development carried many residents’ hopes of bringing new jobs and tourists, but this was quashed at a planning appeal for being too grandiose. In the same year, factory closures saw countless job losses, including 600 in one fell swoop when the Sara Lee cake factory closed.
Whilst these challenges and setbacks are common in many of our towns, Bridlington’s strengths are unique. The town rests on a coastline of breathtaking natural beauty and has so much to offer. Those new to the area can’t stop speaking about their good fortune.
Sensibly, most of the investment in recent regeneration targets tourism. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council has now implemented the town centre plan which will eventually see £150m spent in bringing a new lease of life to the area. Nearly £10m has been invested in extensive refurbishment of the town’s infrastructure, which has included giving small hotels a more upmarket feel by improving their street frontages and en-suite facilities. The council, one of the best in the country, now rightly speaks with confidence of Bridlington’s prospects.
Because the state of our national economy is often the determining dynamic of any town, especially one steeped in tourism, we can never be entirely certain of the future, but in chasing the tourist market, Bridlington is playing to its strengths: the 200-year-old, 85-foot lighthouse at nearby Flamborough, the spectacular white chalk cliffs to the north soaring 400 feet high, which provide a home for protected seabird colonies, the picturesque coves and the little-known fact that Bridlington is now the UK’s top shellfish port – have created a mood of optimism in the town.
Further seafront improvements are now under way, the jewel in the crown of which is the £15m redevelopment of the popular Bridlington Spa complex.
Plans for a Bridlington marina are not dead either. A smaller, less ambitious £65m proposal is currently under discussion and this, together with a 100-foot ‘London Eye’ wheel for the sea front, reflects this new confidence in the town.
 A top London restaurateur once told me that he imports most of his food from France ‘because the French always eat the best.’ In 2007, Bridlington fishermen are proud to be selling a large part of their rich catch of lobsters and crabs to the discerning French. Clear proof, if any was needed, that to experience the finest, you don’t need to go abroad: come to Bridlington.