After witnessing the decline of New Brighton first hand, in 2018 Dan Davies got together with some friends who were tired of seeing the area they grew up in go down hill and decided to step in and intervene.
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00:00Witnessing the decline of New Brighton first-hand, in 2018 Dan Davies got
00:05together with some friends, tired of seeing the area they grew up in going
00:09downhill, decided to step in and intervene.
00:12There used to be 5 million day
00:13trippers a year coming just from Liverpool on the ferry, you know, we are
00:17in the top corner of the Royal Peninsula, right on the, you know, low end of
00:23Liverpool Bay, so you don't pass through New Brighton, you've got to travel to
00:27New Brighton, so it's got to be a compelling reason to sort of visit.
00:31His company Rock Point Leisure work alongside the local community in
00:34developing the Victoria Quarter, which is now bursting with independent bars and
00:38restaurants, music venues, record stores, vintage shops and even a vibrant street
00:43art trail.
00:45The idea that we had was let's buy, rent or lease every
00:48boarded up place, so included three banks that were, you know, we don't have any
00:52banks anymore, a pub, a restaurant, three-story solicitors firms where we are
00:56now, which we've turned into an art gallery and a number of shops and things
01:00and then find people who want to operate businesses, so do a bit of placemaking.
01:05After taking voluntary redundancy from her career in buying, Paula Rogan made
01:11the decision to take over the card shop on Victoria Road as the previous
01:15proprietors were retiring. As a customer of the shop herself, she decided to take
01:20the reins.
01:21It's a nice area, I like New Brighton, it's an up-and-coming
01:25area, didn't want to lose the card shop, it's an independent card shop, there's
01:32not many around.
01:33Sean Martin is a chairman of New Brighton Coastal Community Team.
01:36The team's made up of members from local businesses, churches and community groups
01:40and their aim is to make New Brighton a better place to work, live and visit.
01:45New Brighton is unique, nearly all the businesses in New Brighton are independent
01:49businesses. Myself and my wife, we started 11 years ago, we were looking for a little
01:54shop on the world, so we ended up over here and we opened up an antique shop
01:58called Liberty Antiques on Seabank Road, but all the shops then became open and
02:04all the shops are still open to this day, so it's a great little community as I
02:07say, throughout New Brighton.
02:09By focusing on the area's independent credentials as an
02:13alternative to the seafront offer, their manifesto positions the Victoria Road
02:17area as a destination within the town, where both residents and visitors can
02:22shop, eat and drink, as well as enjoy diverse live events and cultural
02:26happenings.
02:27What I wanted to do was just keep a discreet sort of smallish area where
02:32there's no big brands, it is independent and have a bit of a fight back to, you
02:38know, the online sort of shopping habits that people have gone into.
02:43We do our best to make New Brighton a better place to live in, to visit and to
02:48walk in.
02:49After years of decline, the town is now fighting back, turning itself into an
02:53innovative modern resort with a very bright future.