North Norfolk plans for Fishery Visitor Centres
A bid for funding from the £2.4m European grant for a £85,000 scheme to showcase the past, present and future of North Norfolk’s fishery from four centres is being planned at Cromer, Sheringham, Wells and Stiffkey to explain the heritage and future challenges of the fishing industry to visitors, school children and tourists.
The scheme emanates from the North Norfolk Fisheries Local Action group aiming to support and improve the industry through a range of schemes ranging from infrastructure improvements to marketing and education.
Crab fishing boats on Cromer beach. PHOTO: ANTONY KELLY
Each of the four centres would be different and seek to signpost people on to another one where they could discover something else about the fishery – which stretches from Thornham to Caister and has been at the heart of the area’s economy for generations. It currently employs about 500 people as fisherman, crew, as well as in processing and ancillary industries, dealing mainly with crab and lobster but also handling mussels, whelks, cod, dogfish, herring and sea bass in the summer.
Other schemes in the pipeline include a £75,000 Wi-Fi Spires scheme putting broadband masts on up to a dozen churches along the coast to provide better communications to the fishing industry in addition to other residents and businesses. Research work was also being carried out to provide firm data about the condition of the fish stocks and seabed, which would provide a firm foundation for charting any change.
Earlier grants totalling £872,000 were given out to 11 projects which included £10,000 to maintain Brancaster’s harbour buoys, £7.500 for personal locator beacons for fishermen, £30,000 each for market research and marketing, £40,000 for an online interactive business directory, £48,000 for a documentary, £15,000 for school work, £6,000 for the Coast arts festival, £4,300 to Wells carnival and £200,000 for the overall “engagement project” spread over three years.
Much of the original information comes from an article by Richard Batson in the Eastern Daily Press.
