are we making the most of seaton

The Promenade It was a standard early Monday morning conversation. "What did you get up to over the weekend?" I asked a colleague of mine. It was the answer that took me by surprise. "We had a walk down Seaton on Sunday," had been the response. "We couldn't decide whether to have a walk by the river at Barny (Barnard Castle) or to get a bag of chips at Seaton and have a walk along the prom. In the end we opted for Seaton." I was surprised because my colleague lives in Newton Aycliffe, a town which, even he admits, is a soulless place; a series of housing estates fused together by an even more soulless Shopping Centre. It never occurred to me that a guy from the other side of Darlington would take his family to our very own Seaton for an afternoon out - but then thinking about it, Seaton is his closest access to the coast. Yes he could have stayed on the A66 and headed for Redcar, passing ICI Wilton and the Steel Works on the way - but then have you been to Redcar lately? When I passed on my surprise he was nonplussed by it. "No, we often run over to Seaton on a Sunday. It's not too far and if all you want is a bag of chips and a bit of sea air, it's fine. The kids spend half-an-hour in the arcades and they love it." And then the telling bit. "I've never really understood why you don't make more of it. ('You', being Hartlepool people). The beach always seems to be covered in plastic bottles and chip-wrappers and there's always dog-muck on the prom. If you lot lived in Newton Aycliffe, then I think you'd appreciate a place like Seaton more." He had a point. Geographically speaking, Hartlepool is a very lucky place, lying as it does on the coast. Parts of the town are surrounded by the sea on three sides and yet the town is also within a stone's throw of the A19, the aorta of the North East and within striking distance of the UK's premier road, the A1. That proximity to such motoring conduits also means that the Durham Dales are less than an hour's drive away while the Cleveland Hills are even less. The town can boast some of the best stretches of beach on the north east coast-line and even has its own mini seaside resort; but are we really making the most of our good fortune and of Seaton Carew?. I will resist the temptation to embark on a nostalgia trip of Fair Grounds and Roller Skating; partly because we are where we are, as they say, and partly because of an apparent genetic inability to remain vertical when wheels are attached to family feet. Instead, let us concentrate on assessing the present situation and perhaps a few ways we can make more of our Seaton. First and foremost, we need to recognise that Seaton is something less than it used to be and that there are reasons why and how this came about. The second heyday of seaside resorts, even small ones like Seaton, came soon after WWII when leisure time away from the home environment became popular with working people. This was the time of Billy Butlin and Sir Fred Pontin, of Fair Grounds, Candy Floss and tooth-breaking sticks of Candy Rock. The consumer boom of the 1950s boosted this still further with visits to the seaside probably peaking in the very early 1960s. The advent of television, which didn't really take off until the late 1950s, the increasing affordability of family cars and the development of the continental package holiday all combined to put paid to the family seaside holiday. While Television had made people more adventurous, rising living standards and cheap air-travel had placed guaranteed sunshine within the reach of the average family income. Seaton's role in all of this is that of an innocent bystander. While the town's own coastal resort had never competed with the likes of Blackpool or Scarborough as a destination for family holidays, it did have limited success as a holiday destination particularly with Scottish families and retired people. The main affect on Seaton Carew was that the general move towards package holidays had made such small resorts old-fashioned, non-viable and unpopular. This in turn led to decreasing maintenance and the closure of facilities in Seaton as well as in many other small, seaside resorts. It has taken almost 40 years for the situation to change and for small seaside resorts to realise a resurgent and to some degree a wholly new market - the motoring day-tripper. Such visitors have been around for a long time but the increase in importance now given to leisure time means that families are willing to undertake more day-tripper visits and short breaks while still taking that two-week, family holiday in the sun. In addition, the high price of petrol has led to reluctance to travel long distances especially when local facilities are available. This then is Seaton's present market. So what can Hartlepool as a town now do to improve its attractiveness to visitors? Firstly, let us talk about the improvements that have already been made of which there are a surprising number. The Bus Station. At one stage, the Bus Station was well on the way to becoming another 'North Shelter'. Years of neglect and non-maintenance had allowed the structure to deteriorate to the point when demolition was being seriously considered. The Bus Station was saved when the local council realised that the local population were having none of it and the Bus Station's Clock Tower came to symbolise the line in the sand that had been drawn. Eventually, some sort of land sale was agreed with the nearby Golf Club that would result in monies being made available to refurbish the Bus Station and in general, it looks a lot better for it. Unfortunately, the work appears to have been poorly supervised particularly regarding the bus station window frames which appear to have been left unpainted and with some glaring gaps. Ironically, the most obvious thing that the bus station lacks is the presence of buses.