Flying a Kite
 You'd
be hard pressed to invent a worse advert for a seaside tourist town.
Just before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, you issue a press release to say
that you're banning kite flying on the beach and all public open spaces. It
doesn't matter that you qualify it by saying it doesn't affect single line
kites, the message goes out that Lytham St Anne's and the Fylde don't welcome
anyone with a kite.
Many families are deciding where to have their day out (or their weekend away) in the
days leading up to Easter weekend, and the last thing our tourism industry needs
is publicity like this.
It shows just how far those now running Fylde
Council have lost touch with reality.
It also shows that serious flaws in
judgement can arise when you let a Politburo group of only seven (or even worse
when a single 'briefholder') make decisions that ought to be subjected to the
broader and deeper knowledge and experience of the whole Fylde Council.
Fylde certainly has lost its way on tourism. It now self-evidently fails to
recognise its role in relation to St Anne's most important industry, and it
appears indifferent to whether the tourism industry survives or not.
By adopting this position, it fails to provide the support that the
Promotion of Tourism Act enabled. This means we have less
visitors, less employment, less trade, less prosperity, and less economic
growth, as money earned outside Fylde fails to be attracted and spent here.
These, of course, are all things for which Fylde Council is responsible. Only
the Council can set the image and identity of the area.
Fylde is failing
the tourism industry (and thus its residents), in three ways.
Firstly it
is withdrawing from its traditional role of supporting the tourism economy by
staging and supporting events that attract visitors - no more Lytham Proms, no
more kite festivals that attract thousands who spend here.
Second it
fails to adequately recognise the importance of the beach for wind based
recreational pursuits such as sand yachting and kite based activities. St Anne's
beach is one of the best in the UK for wind based activity, and it is of
international standing. Who else would not maximise the tourism benefits of
their natural assets? Can you imagine the Lake District not making the most of
its lakes and mountains? Can you see Norfolk not exploiting its broads? No, it's
only the present administration at myopic Fylde that fails to make use of the talents it was given. Their
approach defies logic.
Consider this: There was a club whose members
operated sand yachts on St Anne's beach (which is owned by the Council). Without
intending to, their activities gave rise to a situation that inadvertently
caused the death of a visitor to St Anne's. As a result, the Council prevented
the club from carrying on its activities, and all people were prevented from
using the beach for sand yachting and similar activity.
There was another
club, this time a nightclub, operating in a back street in St Anne's. Without
intending to, their activities gave rise to a situation which inadvertently
caused the death of a young man on some steps (Which were owned by the Council).
The Council did not prevent the nightclub from carrying out its activities, they
introduced a scheme to give out lollipops to those leaving the club in the small
hours.
Now, in a knee-jerk reaction to a relatively minor incident, they take
the draconian step of implementing a ban on kiting activity, and even stop small
children flying kites if they have two strings.
They are behaving as
though they have no responsibility for commercial benefits, recreational
pursuits, and normal seaside traditions. Like Pontius Pilate, they wash their
hands and attempt to distance themselves from everything except the cotton wool
padded, polythene wrapped safety of jobsworths hiding behind the politically
correct, nanny state ban they have introduced.
Third, instead of being
pro-active and encouraging sport and recreational activity that leads to
healthier lifestyles, and providing our young people with positive and
challenging activity that keeps them away from drugs and nightclubs, and instead
of supporting self-reliant clubs whose very existence generates the social glue
that binds society together, Fylde Council takes the easy way out, implements a
ban, and fails its community. But there is another failure that is even more
serious. A systemic and institutional failure. The one that allows so few
people, with limited breadth of experience, to take decisions in the name of the
full Council. This Politburo Cabinet system is a disaster, and need to be
reversed as soon as possible. |
It was only when the weight of public opinion against the kite ban showed up
their incompetence, and their failure to act in the interests of the community,
that their tune has changed. They now say the ban was only a temporary measure,
and they will get professional advice about what they should do. What you see
here is the squirming and sliding that is the hallmark of this administration
that thinks we are all stupid enough to be taken in by their spin.
Look
at the wording of their first press release on this topic "This ban is in
response to a recent incident and following an assessment of the risks involved,
we feel that this is an appropriate measure to ensure the health and safety of
everybody on the beaches....."
The clear statement here is that they
have undertaken a risk assessment and, as a result, introduced a ban.
A week or so later, when the public protests started, according to 'The Citizen' this changed to
"What we are now in the process of doing is conducting a long-term safety
assessment looking at how we can safely incorporate all of these activities on
our parks beaches and open spaces. Its not a blanket ban, its a short term
measure which we had to put in place to ensure public safety"
Thus
begins the journey from Fylde to Damascus.
The next staging post,
courtesy of a quotation from the 'Express' was "...we will look at more
detailed risk assessments to address the safety issues on beaches and foreshores
of Fylde."
Then (again from 'The Citizen')
"Fylde Council
are going to undertake a major risk assessment of all activities carried out in
open space, starting with kite surfing."
This smells like a pile of
money being thrown at the problem, something dwarfed only by the scale of public
outrage at the incompetent way the matter is being handled.
Then comes
"We are now looking at a more permanent solution which would allow everybody to
enjoy the open spaces of Fylde."
Then, after banning a family using a
child's kite
"It is difficult to make a judgement on whether to ban
all kites or the type of kites that have been identified as a potential
risk...."
Then, in an exercise in monumental lunacy, they announce
that the cost of investigating whether its safe to fly a kite on the beach will
be £15,000. You don't know whether to laugh or cry. Adding insult to injury, the
Councillor in charge of it says the experts they expect to appoint will be
investigating for "as long as it takes."
So much for the holiday trade.
After a deluge of protest letters to the local press, the tone starts to change,
and we hear "I am sure we will be able to come up with a compromise."
The
most recent comment (given to "The Gazette") has become "As the landowner of the
beach the Council's aim is to allow these activities to take place side by side,
in a safe, controlled environment. We ask people to bear with us during this
period of consultation and risk assessment."
And the Damascenian
conversion is almost complete.
counterbalance predicts the final piece in
this sorry tale will be the headline "Conservatives save kite flying on the
beach."
As a footnote to this saga, readers of counterbalance
are urged to pick up a copy of Fylde Council's own Holiday Guide for 2006.
The cover photo is a family holding a large kite on Lytham Green. Hopefully
this kite only has one string - otherwise it's all a bit pointless.
Page
16, headed 'Excellence in sport and leisure' carries a whole page photo of
someone who is either a life-size marionette in the sea, or a kitesurfer
enjoying a flight through St Anne's surf (which, of course is now banned for "as
long as it takes").
You will also see page 19 which outlines events and attactions together with
its photo of the multi-line monster kite that was a feature of previous Kite
Festivals, (but is now banned).
And on page 54 it carries a third of a
page advertising photograph for what is proudly proclaimed as 'The 12th Fylde
Kite Festival on 10 & 11 June' which, of course, will be a little less
spectacular than usual this year, because only toy kites can be flown rather
than the ones in the picture - assuming it is allowed to go ahead at all.
And all this because there is no longer proper decision making. It is
concentrated in too few hands.
Dated: 22 March 2006 
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