Study of challenges facing coastal communities

Margate attracts crowds in summer but has high levels of unemployment and poverty

Academics from Kent are joining a UK-wide study aimed at investigating seaside communities.

University of Kent staff are participating in the £2.9m Eastern Arc project, one of four around the UK, which will "explore coastal community challenges".

The team will join others from Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex to look at the East of England, which has "some of England’s highest and lowest levels of deprivation".

A spokesperson said they would join other academics to "explore the complex challenges facing our diverse UK coastal areas and develop resilience within them".

The project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It aims to benefit policymakers, local communities, public managers, voluntary groups, researchers, landowners, businesses and residents, a spokesperson said.

Prof Catherine Richardson, director of the institute of cultural and creative industries at the University of Kent, said: "We’re excited to get started on this large and important project, bringing our expertise in finding new creative ways to work with our coastal communities to think through sustainable futures with them."