Anchoring transformed ports in the community

Activity 3 is dedicated to community engagement as final step in the revitalisation of harbour areas. To fully integrate transformed ports in local society, it is essential to involve local and regional communities as the end-users of the transformed areas, to encourage them to use these in their everyday life, and facilitate them to benefit from these areas in terms of employment, recreation and overall quality of life.

Activity 3 has two pillars. Firstly it supports activities and investments to achieve specific community engagement targets defined by several partners:

Pioneer Sailing Trust - establishing and implementing a skills development programme educating young people in the east of England to be employed in the maritime leisure industry.   Brightlingsea Harbour - (a) delivery of recycling campaign to enhance awareness among locals and port users of vulnerable ecology of Brightlingsea creek and port. (b) pilot operation of a foot and cycle ferry to give year round access from the town to the marina.   City of Blankenberge - Upgrading the facilities of a local activity group that educates and engages youths in the maritime world (sea scouts) on the grounds of Blankenberge marina.   Greater Dunkerque Council - creation of a centre of information and reference for regional community regarding jobs and skills in the sailing sector.

Secondly, these partners as well as Colchester Borough Council, Municipality of Schouwen Duiveland and Municipality of Tholen are keen to jointly design and deliver general community engagement programmes to address local target groups and themes.

This activity team will implement the following actions:

  JAT 3 will collect and catalogue tools and approaches in public engagement from Transcoast partners and other actors. They will then jointly design community involvement programmes for each local authority member using catalogued tools and designing new ones if needed to meet partner needs.   Implementation of the community involvement programmes in local communities of all JAT3 partners.   Parallel to action a) JAT3 will explore the plans for targeted activities and investments identified by partners P2, P8, P9, P12. They will provide them with recommendations and guidance for further planning and implementation of these actions.   Implementation of the targeted activities and investments by the 4 responsible partners. Each of them will be assisted by 1 or 2 JAT3 members with relevant expertise. P2 and P12 will work together on their skills and employment programmes. Further matches will be made during c).   Evaluation and synthesis. The results of the community engagement programmes and the specific activities and investments are evaluated by JAT3. This results in a consolidated catalogue of tools and approaches and guidance for community involvement in coastal transformation areas.

Main aims of this JAT:

The aim of this Activity is to provide the authorities and other actors working on the involvement of local communities in transformed port areas with the means to effectively engage with (specific target groups in) their local community.

This aim is achieved by:

joint development of community involvement programmes and their implementation by responsible local partners   implementation of targeted activities and investments for the local community on various partner locations   cataloguing and validating community involvement tools for use in other coastal transformation areas.

Expected results:

community involvement programmes for 6 Transcoast partner locations jointly designed and implemented.   targeted activities/investments on 4 Transcoast partner locations implemented   synthesis report and validated catalogue of community involvement tools produced

Read Joint Activity Team One - Regeneration and territorial integration of port areas in transition