Keith Rossiter: 'Britain's Ocean City' Plymouth puts a toe back in the water
THERE was pandemonium at The Herald this week as we debated whether "Britain's Ocean City" was the right branding for Plymouth.
Half (let's call them the Wrong-headed), claim the city is actually on the English Channel. The other half (let's call them the Enlightened) point out that the Channel itself is part of the Atlantic Ocean.
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ATLANTIC GATEWAY: The 2008 single-handed Trans-Atlantic Yacht Race sets out from Plymouth, Britain's Ocean City. Picture: LA(Phot) Ray Jones
A quick visit to Google will turn up no end of pictures which show that the Atlantic does indeed lick up against Plymouth's shores.
I also consulted two separate editions of the enormous Times Atlas of the World. Its page devoted to oceans shows Britain entirely surrounded by Atlantic.
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You argue with the experts if you wish, but I have better things to do.
There are numerous seas, bights, straits and channels, including the English Channel, and all are contained within the Atlantic Ocean. But even if it weren't true, so what?
When Britain adopted the slogan "Cool Britannia", did you complain that it wasn't accurate because we're actually a temperate region? Did you say, "Grey and damp" would be more accurate?
Branding is about much more than pedantic literal truths: it's about a point of view.
Think of the great slogans. "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands." Really? Just try it. What they mean is that you'll like the sweets so much they won't stay in your hand.
Plymouth's history and its future are about oceans, from Drake to oceanographic research at the university and oceanic yacht races which start or finish here. It's about culture, tourism, and high-tech marine engineering and science. All it needs now is the support of Plymothians.
MANY opponents of the rebranding exercise say the money would have been better spent on beautifying Plymouth first.
It's true that the recession has left the city (along with most others) looking a bit shabby, but spending council tax exclusively on street repairs isn't going to pull in visitors. Have you ever said to your missus, "Come on Mabel, we need to visit Leighton Buzzard, I hear the streets are very smooth"? Thought not.
Fix the marketing first and you'll have the cash to fix everything else.
COUNCIL leader Tudor Evans may have caught his partners on the hop when he launched the city's new branding this week.
But – accidental or not – his timing could hardly have been better. The news slipped out at a Plymouth Plan forum organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects and attended by interested parties from across the country.
The Plymouth Plan consultation now being run by the council is a great way to look at what's wrong with the city – but also a great source of ideas for how to improve it.
The planners have posed a series of questions on their consultation portal at www.plymouth.gov.uk, which is open to all.
So far there are three replies to "What would make the waterfront one of Europe's finest?" – and two of them mention marketing.
MANY Herald readers have highlighted the city's shortcomings, from a scruffy Hoe foreshore to potholes in Peverell and beyond.
The council has very little money so it is going to have to rely on clever thinking.
Last year it allowed a café and art gallery to move into the shelters on the Hoe foreshore, which is now getting a bit of tlc at no cost to the taxpayer. More of that please.
We could also follow the example of Albania. Before the death of the dictator Enver Hoxa the capital, Tirana, was by all accounts a grim and miserable place, dominated by decaying concrete structures and miserable citizens.
In 2000 the city got Edi Rama, an artist, as mayor. Mr Rama spent some of his limited budget on paint – all in bright, primary colours and abstract designs.
Google "Tirana Edi Rama" and browse through the images you find. The place is now a cheerful riot of colour.
With the colour came a swath of benefits: Less litter; people started to pay their taxes; crime fell.
Plymouth may not have much cash, but it could afford to splash out on paint.
Here are some suggestions: the building on the corner of Western Approach/Mayflower Street, home of the old K2 club; some of the flats further down Western Approach; Bretonside bus station and Exeter Street viaduct above the Citybus offices; Buckwell Street flats.
Of course, the faceless bureaucrats would miss the point and give us magnolia.
PERHAPS the mindset that insists we're not in the Atlantic is the one that also wants to set us apart from Europe. We love to hate the EU for wasting our money, and the Common Agricultural Policy is a favourite target. You may be pleased to learn that the European Commission is now demanding the return of 414million euros (£358million) in misspent agricultural subsidies.
You may be less pleased to know that the UK is the worst offender, with 111 million euros misallocated. Next worst is Italy at 48million euros.
12 Comments
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by jtme1
Monday, March 11 2013, 3:21PM
“Marketing what a load of rubbish mate.”
by emsee
Sunday, March 10 2013, 8:57PM
“"Fix the marketing first and you'll have the cash to fix everything else."
I really agree with this & look forward to more of this kind of optimism.
Yes, there's plenty to work on - like our polluted waters and decrepit roads - but this feels like the smart way to go about it.”
by soultoucher
Sunday, March 10 2013, 3:28PM
“It's true that the recession has left the city (along with most others) looking a bit shabby, but spending council tax exclusively on street repairs isn't going to pull in visitors. Have you ever said to your missus, "Come on Mabel, we need to visit Leighton Buzzard, I hear the streets are very smooth"? Thought not.
This is why the council are so disliked by Plymothians, money is never spent on making Plymouth comfortable/clean/aspiring to local people.
It's us that walk on the paving slabs, drive on the roads, avoid the dog mess. You must get fed up with hearing it, I'm certainly fed up with typing it, why don't the council just sort it out?
Put the people first for a change, let us see you're working FOR us, listen to our views and take them on board.
Stop treating us as plebs who are too stupid to make decisions about the City we love and have to live in every day, and spend OUR council tax on maintaining OUR city.
Mr Rossiter also uses the word 'beautifying' as if Plymouth just needs touching up to look pretty. It's quietly falling to bits and when Mabel does come to visit she'll probably trip over a paving slab, break a bone and sue the council.”
by Lashius
Sunday, March 10 2013, 11:52AM
“have to laugh dont you....ocean city? the decent stretch of coastline around this region is that which starts across the bridge!....the waterways around Plymouth on the other hand are a foul polluted mess thanks to the naval base and years of not giving a damm for the maritime environment.
Ocean city my ass you couldnt get me to bathe in the murkey waters of plymouth sound(sound not ocean) for love or money!”
by soultoucher
Sunday, March 10 2013, 11:38AM
“Re painting the foreshore
Why do I have an image of Tudor asking the local teen element to apply some of their 'grafitti art' all over Tinside?”
by jtme1
Saturday, March 09 2013, 3:12AM
“Ocean City.
Is this A good idea for the council to waste our Tax on? And also WHY Ocean City? Where is the Ocean? is it near Plymouth? When I am on Plymouth Hoe on Sunday I shall look out over the ENGLISH Channel and I will see if I can see the Ocean.
Ill put A bet on with anyone that I cant! So why call Plymouth Ocean City? surely Channel City is the better bet?
If the City council Pay me £53000 Ill come up with A great name and some paintwork to go with the name."
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by blackbeard9
Friday, March 08 2013, 5:26PM
“KEITH ROSSITER ?? WHO IS HE ? IF I'M IN THE WRONGHEADED CAMP THEN ROSSITER IS THE DEADHEADED CAMP
I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO HE (ROSSITER) IS AND CARE NOT AT ALL”
by newplymouth
Friday, March 08 2013, 2:49PM
“@notolisbon
I enjoyed reading your post -very informative and I respect your point of view but I do think our sad drab City centre could benefit from a few coats of paint as they did in Albania Perhaps if Lenkie had lived a bit longer who could have become Elected Mayor of Plymouth and make a really good job of brightening up Plymouth which IMHO needs a Boris badly!
Another MP Alan Clark had a quite contrary opinion of the walk up from the Station and his reading of the local polticians then means they have hardly changed IMHO at least some of them!”
by notolisbon
Friday, March 08 2013, 12:18PM
“I see that Keith Rossiter's pro-EU underwear is showing.
He points out to we plebs that our "landed gentry" are skimming off €111m in agricultural subsidies – I'm shocked, I tell you!
It doesn't cross the mind of this formidable investigative journalist that if agriculture were the business of national politics the general population would have a bit more control over it – we can do nothing with the EU in control.
It amazes me that lefties like Rossiter haven't cottoned on yet.
But then, anybody who is supportive of hard earned tax-payers' money being wasted on the bread and circuses of "branding" cities and "cities of culture", would have no problem supporting an anti-democratic and technocratic political elite in Brussels.
Still, we plebs must just carry on like Boxer in Animal Farm – "I must work harder"
Poor old Keith – he must miss the old collectives and their tractor statistics.”
by notolisbon
Friday, March 08 2013, 11:45AM
“@newplymouth
I've lived in Plymouth all my life – I grew up in a beautiful, open and green city.
The ex-Labour and SDP MP for Plymouth, David Owen, once spoke of how proud he was to get off the train at Plymouth, and, from his vantage point at the top of Western Approach, look down through the laid out flower beds that ran through Armada Way, Royal Parade, and onto the Hoe.
I have seen this well-tended vision destroyed with huge paved areas.
This has been my perception of Plymouth throughout my life – the more successive councils have prattled on about Plymouth being a "green" city, the more of my favourite natural haunts have disappeared.
On the subject of the buildings - if you wish to knock down our "Eastern European Communist Architecture" that is your opinion, but some of us still love our low-level laid back buildings – and we have lived through a time when our buildings were looked after.
You might see a bit of a theme developing here – people like you wish to impose on us a way of life that is contrary to the nature of a lot of Plymothians; I, and a lot of Plymouth people, don't want a "Birmingham-by-the-Sea – and, I for one, will argue against such.
If I'm a "whinger" for wanting a beautiful and green (in the proper sense) city then I'm proud to be such.”