Regenerating Maryport

Maryport is a West Cumbrian town that has suffered an appalling loss of jobs and income as a result of the collapse of the area's heavy industry. Faced with an almost total collapse in its industrial base and with few employers to fill the vacuum, it has had to try to regenerate itself as a tourism destination. To do so it relies on its fallen architectural splendour and historic associations with some of the greatest cruise lining dynasties in Britain, including the Senhouses, builders of the Titanic. There is now a Roman Museum, a Steamship Museum, an aquarium and a marina.

The Maryport Partnership is an umbrella organisation overseeing and co-ordinating much of the work involved in developing and promoting the town as a tourist destination. There was a requirement to carry out a mid-term evaluation. Regeneration Manager David Martin was also hoping for some help in defining priorities for the future considering his limited resources. As it was, his was a happy choice as the evaluation he received from Porter Brown was also to prove a useful tool for the long-term future!
He short-listed 6 national and local consultancies, but chose Porter Brown.

"A lot of the other consultants didn't have the local knowledge," says David. "Porter Brown had the local knowledge and the contacts to achieve the work in the time we expected – about four to five weeks."

He adds: "A lot of the consultants were bigger and very expensive and didn't know where Maryport was, let alone what had been going on here. The choice was made by a steering group, including regeneration professionals and local councillors. We wanted a practical assessment, not the paper-exercise we thought we might get from other consultants."

His confidence in Porter Brown was rewarded.
"They were quick to hit on the key issues," says David. "They had access to our files and then carried out interviews with the project sponsors, with staff at the development company and with people who had an interest – community groups."

"We were given a series of practical recommendations as to how the new strategy should develop and we've taken a lot of that on board. From the whole survey, one side of A4 formed the basis of our next five-year bid. I've sent a copy to other SRB organisations for them to use.

"It was a very practical and useful document, not one which we would put on the shelf and forget about which, in my experience, is quite rare."