Climate Week in Sidmouth: TOURFISH: Making Coastal Communities Resilient >>> reports

Last week saw the TourFish report launched during Climate Week:
Futures Forum: Climate Week in Sidmouth: presentation of the TourFish project report: 'Making Coastal Communities Resilient' >>> Wednesday 9th March
Futures Forum: Climate Week in Sidmouth: TOURFISH: Making Coastal Communities Resilient >>> Wednesday 9th March >>> "Responsible Tourism and Blue Economic Growth"

The View from Sidmouth carries a couple of reports on the event:

Climate Week: report on inshore fishing published

Tuesday, 8 March 2016 By Peter Hodges in Local People

Sidmouth Drill Hall Hub will be joining Vision Group for Sidmouth (VGS) to present the full report on the European funded TourFish project as part of Sidmouth Climate Week 2016.

Climate Week runs from today (March 8th) until March 11th and includes presentations from VGS, Exeter University and local enterprises such as SidEnergy.

The Drill Hall Hub’s event will look at how the TourFish Project promotes responsible tourism and economic growth in maritime areas.

The report has been put together by new working partnerships put together with help from the coastal areas of Holland, Belgium, France and England, led by the University of Greenwich, to assess the decline of inshore fishing and diversification in coastal economies.

The event is an opportunity to find out about different approaches to addressing coastal resilience, to network, and discuss ways forward for inclusive regeneration of the Sidmouth coast.

The presentation will take place at Kennaway House on Wednesday, March 9th at 7pm and is free to adults and children.

SIDMOUTH: Climate Week: report on inshore fishing published - Pulman's View from Sidmouth

Project to help develop key areas

Wednesday, 16 March 2016 By Peter Hodges in Environment

‘TOUR FISH’ FOCUSES ON MAKING COASTAL COMMUNITIES SUSTAINABLE

A TOWN councillor is hoping an EU funded project he has worked on will help Sidmouth in the future development of key areas of the town.

Matt Booth, who is a Sidmouth Town and East Devon District councillor, contributed to an EU backed project called TourFish, which explored how to make coastal communities sustainable.

Issues surrounding the decline of inshore fishing and the impact that has on fishing families and the local community were some of the major factors they looked at.

The group then looked how these issues affected aspects of heritage and identity for areas such as Sidmouth, with the final result being the creation of a guide named ‘Responsible Tourism’.

TourFish is a body made up of eight partners across four countries – the UK, France, Belgium and Holland – and Cllr Booth explained how the project came about.

He said: “The TourFish project came about when I met Dr Tim Acott from the University of Greenwich at an EU ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) programme conference in Rotterdam in 2013. Tim had just completed a project called GIFS and was looking to extend it.

“I work in the grants sector and had just completed a project. Tim and I discussed possibilities for partnership working and themes for a new project.”

Cllr Booth made a presentation on the TourFish project during Sidmouth’s Climate Week last Wednesday to several interested local organisations.

Cllr Booth has been working with the Bagwell family, who own the Sidmouth Trawlers fishmongers and cover five generations of fishing in Sidmouth, who Cllr Booth has come to know well since living in the town.

Cllr Booth said: “The guide will continue to support the work that we are doing with the Bagwells and others, and we will begin to work more with coastal organisations, the Vision Group for Sidmouth, and others on it.

Part of the TourFish project was the commissioning from a planning consultant of an ‘Economic Evidence Report’ on Sidmouth Drill Hall which we want to see restored and opened as an arts, eating, meeting and heritage centre for the community.

“We believe that from a functioning Drill Hall, Sidmouth will be in a stronger position to properly and collectively plan a considered development of the Port Royal and Eastern Town area. I definitely believe the Economic Evidence Report demonstrates both a need for that and how it could work.”

The TourFish Guide also presents a very strong argument for why considered regeneration and development in coastal towns, including Sidmouth, leads to strong and sustained economic growth that benefits all.

Future

Irrespective of the Drill Hall, Cllr Booth hopes the TourFish Guide will be used by policymakers and others and provide an important point of reference for considered redevelopment well into the future.

The TourFish project covered 18 months and created a number of outcomes from collaborative research on a range of issues related to responsible tourism and sustainable, considered, and community focused growth.

Cllr Booth finished: “The final project report is the Responsible Tourism Guide that was launched last week, but all partners view the guide as very much a live document that a range of stakeholders can work from.

“It will also enable dialogue with new partners and, we hope, influence and/or contribute to a number of local initiatives.

“These include the Beach Management Plan in particular, the Sidmouth Town Council Port Royal Scoping Study, and the Sidmouth Neighbourhood Plan.”

SIDMOUTH: Project to help develop key areas - Pulman's View from Sidmouth
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