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Coastal Towns

The hon. Gentleman has made a wonderful point. We were not given anything, and an even greater burden has been placed on us. We have lost our buses. We had the longest pier in the world, which burnt down for the third time, and on which huge amounts of money will have to be spent, through nobody’s fault. Our beautiful cliffs started to slide into the sea, which will cost a huge amount to repair. The estuary at Leigh-on-Sea needs dredging, because it is becoming silted up and the cocklers can no longer harvest as efficiently as they used to. There are a huge number of problems. How right the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey) was to bring up matters concerning children. In my constituency such issues have been a particular challenge for the local authority. Southend—and Southend, West in particular—has not only the problems of all other coastal resorts, but its own special problems, which we could do without. We celebrate the fact that we have the most concentrated gathering of senior citizens in the country, including the most centenarians. I shall not fall out with my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West (Sir John Butterfill) over numbers of senior citizens, but we shall be in the ““Guinness Book of Records”” for bringing together the most centenarians in the country. That itself presents huge challenges. The Government’s response tells us that they have been helping all Britain’s towns and cities to address the issues that they face, through various programmes and initiatives, over the past 10 years, which is splendid. The initiatives have been developed by organisations such as the European Union, development agencies and urban regeneration companies. As to the European Union, I make regular visits, when I meet the appropriate commissioner and try to get money in relation to green initiatives or disability, for example. Whatever the criteria, we will meet them, but we do not really get much money from the European Union in Southend. I ask the House to consider how on earth the European Union will know the detail of the challenges faced by a constituency such as mine. I understand the good intentions behind the establishment of organisations such as the regional development agencies, but I, and many of my constituents, are fed up with unelected, unaccountable quangos trying to dictate to towns what is best for them. In the 24 years that I have been a Member of this House, Parliament has gradually lost a great many powers, and the balance has now finally tipped so that the mother of all Parliaments is in truth no longer running the country. Quangos—unelected bodies—are. The point about them is this: when I represented a new town the money was there, but all those quangos are unable to deliver. Privately their representatives come to see me, asking, ““David, can you raise this issue in the House of Commons, and get us taken a bit more seriously and given more money?”” I know, Mrs. Anderson, that I am probably talking to myself. It will not do much good in the long run, but I am heartened by the prospect of a change of Government, without a general election. I particularly welcome the proposals in the Sustainable Communities Bill, which is sponsored by some of my hon. Friends and which will make the action of the relevant organisations more transparent, and, it is to be hoped, more responsive to the needs of specific communities. [Interruption.] I thought that my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West wanted to intervene, but he was obviously just terribly interested—or hoping that I was about to finish; I am not going to quite yet. A common characteristic of coastal towns on which the Select Committee reported was the nature of the coastal economy. Southend became a popular seaside resort during the Victorian era, owing to its proximity to London, and easy access. It has many similarities to Brighton, but we are not in Brighton’s fortunate position. We face many challenges that are different from those faced by Brighton, which of course now has city status. You, Mrs. Anderson, were once the Tourism Minister, and a splendid one. I recall your responding to a debate that I secured in this Chamber some years ago. I thank you for what you were able to do for my constituency and the difference that you made. To return to the report, it recommended that the Government"““conducts an immediate study on coastal tourism, including evaluating the levels and spend of domestic and inbound visitors to the coast in comparison to non coastal areas.””" The Government, however, have stated in response that their investment of £50 million a year in VisitBritain has already taken that task in hand. However, VisitBritain has been getting £50 million every year. Without pretending to be a mathematician, I do not think that it is worth as much as it was 10 years ago.