Starting next Thursday I’m off on a mad seaside tour. In this tiny country you’d think a circuit of Southend, Southwold, Great Yarmouth, Cromer, Scarborough, Blackpool and Southport wouldn’t be so difficult, but some of the train journeys make me wince. If you love the sea, why do you have to go to Peterborough and York to get up the east coast? Why to Manchester on the nip across from Bradford to Blackpool? Other irritations are purely geographical – I never knew Blackpool and Southport were divided by an impassable river… I know it sounds like a stupid question but:… Read more…

Here begins the Seaside Tour… Started in Hastings (ie home), by hosting a 24-hour field trip by the Asset Transfer Unit Stakeholder Forum, including visits to the pier (closed), the White Rock Baths (closed) and the Pier Shop (open!), with dinner at the Azur (former Marina Pavilion). Next day a presentation at the House of Hastings by Eddie, Emily & Jessica of Meanwhile Space, before the ATU meeting explored the scale of potential transfers as assets are squeezed out of the public sector over the coming months and considered how to implement the Coalition’s commitment on Community Right to Buy…. Read more…