who drowned in a hotel swimming pool in spain on christmas eve. free hospital parking in england for some patients and visitors from april — but questions over how it will be funded. the national trust says there's been an increase in wildlife migrating to the uk, because of climate change. next, simon mccoy looks back at the challenges and opportunities faced by britain s coastal communities this year in review 2019: coastal britain. hello, i'm simon mccoy. this year, as part of a special series, we have looked at some of the main challenges and opportunities facing britain's coastal communities. we have been looking at a whole range of subjects, from employment and the future of tourism, to issues including poverty, loneliness and the environment. earlier this year i went to penzance. we will hear from there later in the programme, but first, back in may, we visited great yarmouth in norfolk. three years ago it was chosen as a pilot site for the introduction of universal credit — a welfare reform which combines six benefits into a monthly payment. 0ne school in town was running its own food bank because it said some families did not have enough money to feed their own children. the government at the time said it could not be claimed that universal credit was driving the overall use of food banks. great yarmouth — like many coastal towns, deprivation is an issue here. and one primary school knows about this issue all too well. sharon is a support advisor and helped to set up a food bank at the school. michael is a parent. right, what would you prefer for breakfast? why do you have to do this? because what we are on, we are on universal credit. they think that we can live on the money that they give us. and we can't. how important is the school? it's majorly important for me and my family. without the food bank or the school, we would be stuffed. i would have had to go out stealing. you'd have to go out stealing without this school? yes. it was head teacher debbie whiting's decision to start the food bank last autumn in response to an increase in the number of students turning up to school hungry. in orderfor a child to be able to learn and come into school ready to learn, there is a whole raft of things that need to be in place. they need to be fed, warm, feel safe. it is difficult. we've had parents who find it difficult to manage financially to actually feed their children. because of, really, the introduction of universal credit. one of those parents is lee. he is learning to cook at the school alongside others going through tough times. we waited eight weeks for the universal credit payment. in the meantime, the school has been a great help, giving us food parcels. but the school's ability to help disadvantaged families now faces a new threat. the school budget has been cut. staff will have to go. debbie's job is on the line. will i end up as one of these who would rely on the food bank that we have here? who knows? i don't know. i'm a single—parent, i've got children. one of those things. it can't be helped. there are efforts to regenerate and create jobs for the community. for example, in the renewable energy sector. three of the biggest wind farms in the world are either currently under construction or planned off the norfolk coast. earlier in the year, we followed gwyn evans, unemployed but after months of training, got himself a job in this emerging job market. six months ago i found myself unemployed. being out of work is no fun. there have been times when money has been really, really tight and you had to budget hard to get through day by day. all crew, abandon ship! and to get more on this emerging industry, i spoke to the chief executive of the east of england energy group, simon gray, in great yarmouth. people don't mind offshore wind as much as onshore, we had some objections to that but these will be larger turbines being more efficient and cost—effective. offshore wind is really coming home and hitting great yarmouth and lowestoft and the entire east coast. 0ver your shoulder they are putting together the next generation of these turbines. what struck me, talking to someone this morning, is the speed of progress in the power that one turbine can produce. one of those now is producing what ten of those were producing not long ago? pretty much. they are getting bigger and bigger and the output greater and greater so they are more cost—effective. it's good news for everyone. so, before renewable energy, tourism was king. but what about now? to find out more about how the tourism industry is faring, i spoke to the founder ofjoyland theme park in great yarmouth, michael cole. we went on a snail ride together... this isn't something you do every day. this is your snail ride. 70 years old this year. what have you seen change in great yarmouth in that time? i can remember the late 1960s, into the ‘70s. yarmouth boomed and it was really busy. into the 1980s, it kind of declined a little bit into the ‘90s. to be quite honest, the last three orfour years, i think there has been a bit of a resurgence. we are coming to the big dip. hold tight! right, anyway! laughter. you're enjoying this, aren't you? i thought i would! what about things like wind farms and things like that, does that change the feel of a town like this? i think it is, to a degree, but we have always had industry here. the oil industry, i think the wind technology is taking over from what the oil industry was doing so there is a mix in yarmouth with tourism and industry. as you can see, i rather enjoyed my visit to great yarmouth. next, penzance in cornwall. we visited in october and found similar challenges facing the town. in fact, bbc news analysis found that seaside workers in areas like that are likely to earn £1600 per year less than those employed inland. the all—parliamentary group for coastal communities said the findings showed seaside towns were being left behind. jon kay went to meet three generations of one family living in penzance. just a mile from the beach... the treneere estate — one of the poorest parts of britain. the coram family wanted to show us how they get by. we survive day by day. dad mike is a full—time security guard and earns 18 grand a year. he is paid on a friday, and it's soon gone. by monday morning i will be already into my overdraft. thursday, i could be asking my boss if she could sub me from next week's wages so i could put fuel in my tank to go to work. that is every week. then she takes that out of my wages so next week i will be low again, so we just start again. it's a vicious circle? yes. it's a familiar story here in penzance — a town literally at the end of the line. analysis by the bbc has found a typical worker in coastal areas like this earned just over £22,000 last year whereas a typical worker inland earned over £23,500. a difference of £1600. there are 12 grandchildren and seven adults. mike's wife, amanda, runs the household budget and has to make food last. it is a matter of, you have to find the cheapest option to live. are you all right back there? she is a trained chef but cannot find a job around here that pays anything like what she would earn inland. it is disgusting. i don't see why we should be paid so much less. i mean, you are going to get lower wages, it is a smaller place but you can't afford to go out. where are you going to go? when we do, mcdonald's. we get a cappuccino and go and sit on the beach because that's about all you can afford. the government says it is investing millions to boost coastal communities like penzance and level up the uk. but a lot of tourism jobs here are only seasonal and other big employers like fishing, farming and mining have all been hit. their daughter, lucy, dreams of getting a place of her own. energy would be £49 per month. prices around here are high and even though she works 50 hours a week, on the minimum wage she feels trapped. it is so, so ridiculous. people further up have this money and are able to spend this money willy—nilly because it is easier for them because they earn more money up there. we don't earn so much down here. lucy now thinks she will have to move inland, splitting up a family who are cornwall born and bred. why should i have to move from my home to get more money? i don't see why we should be treated any different to anybody else. cornwall is well—known for its beautiful beaches, dramatic cliffs and pretty fishing villages. but being right at the end of the uk can make living and working here a lonely experience, especially for younger people. alex 0sborne has been meeting those who use social media to overcome rural isolation. starting a newjob, moving to a new country. it's bleak. there's not a lot of people, not knowing anybody. you know, it's all the ingredients, really, to feel quite isolated. kelvin relocated to cornwall from the netherlands in 2018. his marriage ended and he was offered a job in penzance. the geography of the place, it definitely adds to that feeling of being sort of stuck out on a far edge of something. many people view west cornwall as a dream location to live in. but not knowing anyone was challenging for kelvin. whenever you turn up to somewhere and you are new, you are coming into other people's lives that are established, which is very different. you know, they have their lives and you make friends but you are not going to see them every day so it isjust a different kind of situation. your room can become your prison. you can be in a flat, and you are just there and there's nobody about you. a university of exeter study revealed that levels of loneliness are higher in younger people, with 40% feeling lonely compared with only 27% of over 75s. it's a particular problem in places like cornwall. given its rural location, it really can be quite isolating, especially for young people. professor manuela barreto is head of psychology at the university of exeter. rural isolation makes it harder for young people or older people, for that matter, to access the kinds of activities that make it easier for social connections to flow and to be sustained over time. so if it is hard to access the right kind of transport that gets you into those places, then it is going to be harder to sustain social relationships. lam kay, i moved to cornwall in october 2016. i didn't know anyone at all when i first moved down. after working and travelling abroad for six years, kay decided it was time to settle down and save for a house. the idea of living by the sea drew her to cornwall. going from being around people constantly to being by yourself, it was quite lonely and horrible coming back to an empty house and not having anyone you could call up to go for a drink or anything like that. i've seen a lot of people who know each other from school. i wasn't sure how i would go about making friends. enter social media and a solution to kay and kelvin‘s isolation. all of these people met online. it's sort of like internet dating, but for new friends. you are instantly channelled towards people who have the same experiences as yourselves. it fast—tracks a process that might take many years. my life turned around in many respects. it has had a major impact on my life, pretty much a majority of my friends have been through these social media platforms. definitely the future is bright. thanks to social media, i have a partner now and a big group of friends. we do lots of activities together so it's good fun. as you drive into penzance, you will see signs welcoming you into a plastic—free town. it is the first community in the uk — in fact, the world — to gain that status from the marine conservation charity surfers against sewage. sarah ransome has been to visit the charity to see how their campaign has been getting on. grassroots protests for global awareness. this is a town that works hard to keep its eco—friendly credentials and is happy to shout about it. we will not stop until action is taken! we are surrounded by the environment and nature. it would be horrible to see that go. something you are so close to, to be taken away from you, really. really upsetting. it is notjust the shore line that has been polluted by plastics. local fishermen have been catching it for years, too. now, 160 vessels around the southwest have signed up to help tackle the problem. the mission for penzance to go plastic—free began around two years ago. residents have worked with local businesses in the wider community to try and crack down on single—use plastics that sometimes wash up on beaches like this one and blight them. the ultimate aim is to make the town more environmentally friendly and for it to have a more sustainable future. now, hundreds of other communities around the uk are following its lead. so we have got the compostable cutlery. this one—stop health food shop and cafe was quick to do its bit to get rid of single—use plastic. as a town, we felt that we could make a big difference. it hasn't happened overnight, and customers have had to get used to paying a bit more for a substitute. there is nothing but positivity for penzance. i think people are really believing in the town now and the more they see these things happening, the better it will be. and this enthusiasm for all things environmental seems to be catching. campaigners in penzance are hopeful the number of towns looking at what they can do in their own backyard continues to grow. so with the town flying the plastic—free flag, the hope is that small steps can help make big changes. when we visited penzance, we broadcast from thejubilee pool — a lido on the coast which is currently being refurbished to include a geothermal pool. it is part of their sustainable approach to boost the local economy so it can be open all year round. susan stewart is one of the pool‘s directors and told me more about the project. penzance is a seasonal economy. we've got lots of really high proportions of people with part—time work so they have five or six part—time jobs in summer, almost nothing in winter. this project will mean we are creating something like eight new full—time jobs across the year, which isn't many in number but it's quite a significant change. we go geothermal and nod our heads but what does it mean and how does it work? we have hot rocks here in penzance. 500 metres down, the granite is quite hot. a well has been drilled which will bring water up at over 30 degrees, and we pump it into our new geothermal pool, which will be open all year round. so in the winter you can sit in 35 degree water, with steam rising around your head. you can be one of our first guests, if you like! but it will be great. some of it will bring in higher value tourism business and we can help to extend the winter tourism or the off—the—shoulder season into penzance, and support retail, hotels, leisure, restaurants. it is notjust the lido here in penzance which is the subject of major renovation. the same could be said for the local language. cornish has been long written off as dead or dying, but that has been changed by local musicians. singer—songwriters have rediscovered the ancient language and are giving it a new lease of life. sarah gosling has been to meet them. i'm sarah gosling and i present bbc music introducing in devon and cornwall, where we showcase the very best local music and since i've been doing the show i've noticed a really happy and unexpected increase in the amount of artists singing in cornish. think of cornish and you might think of bards and druids, folk music and old blokes with beards. there are some beards dotted around but in terms of the music it is as contemporary and cool as it gets. without the language, it acts as an anchor to our history and our past and future. in the iron age and was spoken widely all the way up until the 19th century but if it weren't for recent efforts to try and revive it, it would have died out completely. speaks cornish. we have about 300 fluent speakers. and about 1000 to 2000 speakers of some competency. the music scene in cornwall is buoyant, there is a diverse amount of groups coming through which is great to see in general. some sing their entire songs in cornish but others just play with words and use it a little bit. it all helps! sings in cornish. this is gwenno, half welsh and half cornish with english being her third language. last year year she released a critically acclaimed album — all in cornish. for me, there is something about the cornish language, about its survival. it is fascinating. it has been up against the wall, really, and it is still here. it isn'tjust music — all across the county people are taking time out of their evenings to learn their language. we are not appreciated, we are on the end of england! and it is a way of identifying us. and i think it gives us a lift. so while cornish might not be completely safe as a language yet, with the efforts of guys like these, the future is looking a lot brighter. would you consider learning cornish? yes, i would like to know if it works. it would be nice to learn a little bit. it is good to see bands singing cornish and keeping it alive, yeah. speaks cornish. that is all for our in—depth look at how two coastal communities are dealing with the challenges they face. i hope you've enjoyed it as much as i have. from me, simon mccoy, goodbye. another grey day across much of the uk today. the wettest and windiest is going to be further north, scotland and northern ireland are going to see some very heavy rain around this morning. through the afternoon it's turning lighter and patchy but still some rain to come and after a bright start to 0rkney and shetland we finish the day with some heavy rain. strong winds as well across the north and the west. patchy light rain and drizzle working eastwards across england and wales. there will be a few breaks in the cloud so some of you will see sunshine. most staying cloudy. coolest across eastern areas where winds are lightest in the west we could see temperatures ten to 12 degrees but the north and western parts of scotland we could see winds touch 50, 60 mph at times, especially early afternoon. as we go into this evening and overnight it's going to stay quite windy particularly across scotland and northern ireland. further rain at times working northwards. some rain for a time in northern england again but a lot of dry weather to come. a fair bit of cloud, a few breaks here and there which may see temperatures drop down to lower single figures but for most around five to 9 degrees, mild enough to start your saturday morning. as we go into the start of the weekend these weather fronts wriggle up the north and western side. this area of high pressure starting to extend a little bit more influence across england and wales and so we are into a longer spell of dry weather than we have had for a while. there will be lots of cloud. some breaks here and there. a few breaks in eastern scotland and the south and east of northern ireland, hazy sunshine, but in the west of scotland and north of northern ireland heaviest rain at times most persistent across the western highlands but the temperatures for all of us in double figures by the stage, and it will get even milder for many as we go into sunday. the air is coming all the way up from the north—west of africa so temperatures higher than they should be for the time of year and after a cloudy day on saturday a greater chance of some sunday sunshine so if you are planning a weekend walk this is the day to do it. england and wales particularly sunny. some sunny breaks for scotland and northern ireland, just one or two showers. the main chance of showers is across the highlands and islands but where you get any breaks or a bit of shelter 1a, 15 celsius possible and the same in northern ireland with temperatures in double figures. cooler air pushing in at the start of next will stay on largely dry conditions. the greater chance of fog patches as we go into new year's eve but for the vast majority if you have any outside celebrations most places will be dry. this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 11... at least 12 people are killed, after a plane crashes in kazakhstan. dozens of survivors, including children are being treated in hospital. tributes are paid to a father and his 2 children, who drowned in a hotel swimming pool in spain on christmas eve. free hospital parking in england for some patients and visitors from april — but questions are raised over how it will be funded. the national trust says climate change has led to an increase in wildlife migrating to the uk. and coming up, we'll get a glimpse into the rarely seen lives, of five women photographers. that's in "through the lens".

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