We need to talk about tourism! Nowhere is this truer than in Embleton where the beaches and scenery top the list of Northumberland (or even the UK’s) greatest tourist attractions.
How many photos have we seen in news magazines of the iconic basalt cliffs of Dunstanburgh Castle above the sweeping curve of Embleton’s beach and golf course. Perhaps a good number of us would say “too many”!
Our beaches beckon and they come in cars
From towns and cities, perhaps from Mars
Ten thousands bringing jobs and cash
Leaving tons of litter and plastic trash
They block the roads and crowd the streets
Enjoying beer and ice cream treats
The summer is busy and winter too
While their doggie friends leave bags of poo
Of course, we love them and wish them well
Though some may seem like fiends from hell
It's great we have fine open spaces
The sea, the castles, such lovely places
It's great these townies can breathe fresh air
So, we must find best ways to share
It's great we can charge them here and there
But our fragile treasures need good care
So just what kind of future do we dream
Find best ways to manage this great stream
Their cars and bikes must be controlled
Our dunes and beaches perhaps patrolled
More activities and information are the key
To help all enjoy sand, links and sea
Northumberland is England's very special place
In a post-corona world where we all need space
Why do we need to talk about this?
Unfortunately, tourism has many of the characteristics of Jekyll and Hyde.
The good side is found in the jobs and money which tourism can bring. The bad side comes from litter, overcrowding, parking problems, dune-land erosion, and downright bloody-minded behaviour.
We can only keep a good balance between these extremes if we take the trouble and find the imagination to ensure good management. As numbers continue to increase with overseas holidays becoming less attractive, this imperative will become even more significant. Are we doing well? That’s what we need to talk about.
There are four policy areas where effective thought and action are now urgently needed:
- best ways to provide information and guidance for visitors
- development of new activities which bring jobs from “Value added Tourism”
- the vital need to plan and control car parking
- how are toilets and sanitary facilities to be provided for all our visitors
Are any of these key policy areas addressed in the Embleton Neighbourhood plan or by the County Council? Sadly, I would have to say an emphatic “NO”.
Information and Guidance
We cannot expect our city dwelling visitors to understand and respect the fragile wildlife, flowers, and rights of other recreational users unless we provide them with proper information and guidance.
If necessary, this will include patrolling by wardens (as envisaged by the County’s Coastal Mitigation Service). There are public footpaths which should be used for safety and protection of Duneland. There are bylaws which prevent use of bikes, horse riding, camping, lighting of fires, loud music and dogs being “off the 1.5 metre lead”.
As owners of the most important coastline areas, the National Trust need to be persuaded to honour their vital responsibilities in this role and use the resources provided to them specifically for this purpose by the Sutherland family who gifted the land to them in 1961.
“Value added Tourism”.
How can we best “harvest” the huge stream of visitors to create jobs in ways which enhance the attraction of our coast without detracting from its natural beauty? Yes – visitors rent cottages, stay in hotels, and buy food and drink – all this is easy.
We need to be imaginative now to encourage new activities, new shops (perhaps for arts and crafts), teaching other activities such as painting, pottery, photography, bird watching, surfing, sailing, golf, basket making, wild flower identification, dog training, vegetable growing, etc… Hairdressing, beauty salons, cookery courses are other options – so the list goes on.
This is the essence of appropriate “value added tourism”.
Car Parking
The proper management of car parking is the extraordinary “elephant in the room” as far as Embleton and Dunstan Steads are concerned. Everyone who lives here, or visits is aware of the daily summer chaos and congestion. In truth we are so familiar with all this we don’t give a second thought to the critically important role the limitation of car numbers has played in preserving the unique beauty of Embleton beaches.
As a child I remember the regular strident requests my father (Sir Ivan Sutherland) received to create car parks on our land – all of which he refused in attempting to keep down numbers to preserve the unspoiled beaches. At Low Newton, of course, we were successful in providing land for a car park away from the beach and getting the County to stop “wild” car parking with yellow lines.
Perhaps the time has now come to face up to this issue with cool heads for the Sea Lane at Embleton and the road end at Dunstan Steads? A sensible decision on this will be the critical policy issue for the future management of our tourism and the protection of our Duneland.
Public Toilets
It is crazy and unfair for the County Council, the AONB and Northumberland Tourism to go on advertising our beaches without ensuring there is proper provision of public toilets.
It is the County which makes significant income from the public car parks – surely, they could use some of this to help. Poor old Embleton relies on generosity of the Parish Room and the golf clubhouse; at Low Newton the public toilets (2 only) can hardly manage and at Craster there are often long queues.
The background
Let’s be clear Northumberland is a unique county in England. Not just because of its wonderful scenery but, above all, because it is largely unspoiled as it has by far the lowest population density of any English county. Our big open spaces, both moorland and coast, attract discerning (and often wealthy) visitors. These beautiful spaces are our biggest asset – we are not a place for gaudy promenades, one armed “bandits”, fair grounds, and candy floss.
But these open spaces are vulnerable and can be easily compromised by overcrowding. Even our own Area for Outstanding Beauty now recognises that there is a time when greater tourism numbers need to be kept down so that overcrowding does not destroy the very places people have come to enjoy.
Here is a recent statement from Northumberland Tourism: “Our ongoing challenge is to ensure that this level of growth is managed sustainably, so as to protect our beautiful landscapes and our way of life. We are working closely with Northumberland County Council towards this aim.” But as we all know – fine words (especially from politicians) “butter no parsnips”!
10 million people visit Northumberland
Over 10 million people visit Northumberland for tourism each year. With continued advertising by the County Council, the Press, Trip Advisor and holiday accommodation providers, these numbers are steadily increasing (at around 6 percent each year).
These visitors spend more than £1 billion. One third from day visitors, two thirds from overnight stays. What we don’t know, of course, is how much of this money stays in our County and how much is simply syphoned off by wealthy individuals who live elsewhere but own one or more holiday cottages.
As local people know all too well, the extreme profitability and tax exemptions which go with the holiday cottage business have driven up the price of local properties to crazy levels. Northumberland itself has a resident population of just over 300,000 – a relatively small number which is dwarfed by our huge influx of visitors.
Embleton
Our village at Embleton is at the sharp end of all this. In many ways we are very dependent on agencies “outside our control”. The County Council and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Northumberland Tourism control and direct large advertising and information budgets.
The County Council are also responsible for the critical policies for managing traffic and car parking. The government and British Telecom control the quality of our internet connection which is now so important for encouraging the emerging new business world in our post-corona economy.
The National Trust own our scenic coastline. Embleton, through its Parish Council and County Councillor, can only influence these matters indirectly.
But this does not mean we should not have a clear voice and opinion about things we want and things we don’t want. Quite the contrary, unless we have this clear voice, we are likely to find ourselves purely passive receivers of policies and actions handed down from elsewhere.
I think it’s time Embleton, Craster and Newton set up their own “Tourist Authority” through the Parish Councils including representatives from business as well as someone from the County.
