Well, Who Are You Going To Believe..?

The people who live there?

David, who is 79 and retired, said he did not view the area as having a severe lack of community spaces. “We’ve got the whole of the beach, the whole seafront,” he said. “We have plenty of community spaces, I would say. It doesn’t feel like we are lacking anything at all.”

This sentiment is shared by Mark Allen, who has been running Munchies cafe on the seafront of the Norfolk seaside town for nine years.

“I don’t think we are lacking in community spaces. I actually think that areas like this are lovely and have a nice local community feeling. I wouldn’t say there’s a noticeable lack of community spaces.”

Or the 'experts'?

The analysis, conducted by Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion of public assets in the worst-off council wards, found that left-behind neighbourhoods on average have a disproportionate lack of social infrastructure in comparison with the national average.

So, the experts are wrong (again)? Or...is it a matter of how 'community spaces' are defined?

Kyra Drake, 25, who has been working for the charity and cafe for two years, recognises that although the cafe has a role as a community hub for locals, the area would benefit from an increase in development and funding for community spaces.

“I’d like to see more supported community spaces for LGBT people and other minorities in particular,” she said. “I think it’s really important that more community spaces like that exist in Yarmouth North, and we don’t have anything of the sort currently.”

Aha! Is that a clue I see, perchance?