URBLOG

Gap widening between ‘resurgent’ and ‘stuck cities’

 How Can Cities Thrive in the Changing Economy?

The Work Foundation today releases a league table of the productivity of different cities across the UK that reveals wide and growing disparities between ‘resurgent’ cities and those that appear to be ‘stuck’. Lack of vision and failure to collaborate with neighbours are considered significant waeknesses. Historic coastal towns fare particulary badly in this changing environment. Differences risk being exacerbated by the credit crunch as too many UK cities have built up a reliance on financial service jobs compared to their European counterparts, the How Can Cities Thrive in the Changing Economy? report warns.  

"Many refuse to recognise that their economic future relies on trade links with a neighbouring city that, despite being a historic rival, is now thriving. And they are often blighted by either chaotic or complacent leadership."

Parkour at Portsmouth Cathedral

Urban sport takes over sacred space

Parkour  will be performed with organ music at Portsmouth Cathedral as part of a nine-day celebration of arts across the city.

An elected Mayor for every major English town and city

Mayors rule,   Michael Kenny and Guy Lodge consider the case in  IPPR’s quarterly journal Public Policy Research (ppr).

“Even though mayors have proved a success in places like London, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, the current system allows councils to block the creation of more mayors. Mayoral campaigns like the current London one help to invigorate local politics by provoking interest and debate on local issues. "

Global port cities under threat

Guardian Unlimited Photo essay

New research aims to pinpoint which cities are most reliant on adequate flood defences, and investigates how climate change is likely to impact each port city’s exposure to coastal flooding by the 2070s, taking into account socio-economic factors such as population growth and urbanisation.

WALKING THE M62

John Davies' M62 journal available to download

During the months of September and October 2007 Liverpool parish priest John Davies took a walk across the north of England following the route of the M62 motorway east to west from Hull to his home back in Liverpool. This is an edited version of the daily entries John posted on his walk website.

Weathering the storm

English Hertiage considers the future of the coastal resorts

Allan Brodie   has spent the last five years travelling the country studying seaside towns and whose book, England's Seaside Resorts, is published next month - this image of seasonal exodus and decay is a partial one. While towns such as Margate may have struggled to revive their fortunes after holidaymakers turned their backs on the traditional English bucket-and-spade break, it is important, he says, to dispel myths about coastal resorts generally being in a state of terminal decline.

Guardian report

DCLG on Caostal Towns

COASTAL TOWNS REPORT

Another side of the seaside

The Communities and Local Government Committee have extended the debate on the future of seaside communities in their Coastal Towns report (a debate highlighted by last year's Faithful Cities report p.34).

Labour MP Phyllis Starkey, said: "We were disappointed to find that the government has conducted no research into the situation of coastal towns in recent years, nor did we receive any evidence demonstrating that there was any action or liaison between departments specifically on coastal towns."

The report found that in England as a whole since 1997 there had been a 2.2% increase in claimants of incapacity benefit, special disability allowance or income support - but in seaside towns the rise had been 12%.