Now on bbc news, simon mccoy looks back at the challenges and opportunities faced by britains coastal communities. Hello, im simon mccoy. This year, as part of a special series, we have looked at some of the main challenges and opportunities facing britains 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. Ashleyjohn baptiste has the story. 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. I was starting with breakfast . Right. Are cornfla kes 0k . Yes. 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 cant. How important is this school . Its 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. But i dont. Youd have to go out stealing without this school . Yes. It was head teacher debbie whitings 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. Weve 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 schools ability to help disadvantaged families now faces a new threat. The School Budget has been cut. Staff will have to go. Debbies 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 dont know. Im a single parent, ive got children. One of those things. It cant 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, ifound 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. You are keeping an eye on your meter beeping, thinking, when is the electric going to cut off . Things have got that bad, you know . Lets say i got a job, basically, for me that would be like going from nothing to being financially sound. It would be like everything. Ive never been on a turbine itself but being on one, looking up at it and looking out over the horizon, i think that would be fantastic. All crew, abandon ship we make it as realistic as possible, you know, in bad weather. So when they come along, they know if it does happen theyve got a chance of survival. Yes, smashing up against the side there, that was almost like a real life scenario. When you hear that siren, its emergency protocol and it kicks adrenaline into you. You go up there and youre peering over the 20 metre hatch and you realise how high it is. Sometimes it is a bit like trying to put a cat in a bath i wouldnt want to fall the whole point of this is to get used to heights, familiarise yourself with being up there. This is what it is all about, the training thats offered here. If you didnt have that, thered be no way you were getting offshore and working on a turbine. Today is after my training, it is my first interview so a little bit nervous. A little bit shaky i hope i can get my foot in the door here and keep it well and truly wedged open for me for the future. That is the plan. Double whammy. Job offer and my birthday you know, statistically, that kind of stuff doesnt happen, does it . So i thought, should i do the lottery . Hopefully i can pay off everybody. Im sure they will be happy about it, too even on a basic rate, i should be five times better off than what i was. We are going out to the wind turbines. Feeling excited to finally be doing it at last. You know, it has all built up to this. Im excited to be up here on a wind turbine. It is great. Its a lovely day, ive seen some wildlife. But yeah, thank god im actually on a turbine. Excellent 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 dont 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. Its 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 isnt 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. Youre enjoying this, arent 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 its 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 weeks 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. Its a vicious circle . Yes. Its 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. Mikes 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 dont 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 cant afford to go out. Where are you going to go . When we do, mcdonalds. We get a cappuccino and go and sit on the beach because thats 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. The corams 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 dont earn so much down here. Lucy now thinks shell 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 dont 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 have been using social media to overcome rural isolation. Starting a newjob, moving to a new country. Its bleak. Theres not a lot of people, not knowing anybody. You know, its 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 sort of coming into other peoples 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 theres 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. Its 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 is going to make 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 its going to be harder to sustain those social relationships. Im kay, i moved to cornwall in october 2016. I literally didnt 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 around no one at all and just by yourself, it was quite lonely and horrible coming back to an empty house and not even having anyone you could call up to go for a drink or anything like that. Ive seen a lot of people know each other from school so i wasnt sure how i would go about making friends. Enter social media and a solution to kay and kelvins isolation. All of these people met online. Its sort of like internet dating, but for new friends. Youre instantly channelled towards people who have the same experiences as yourselves. Itjust fast tracks, i think, a process that might take many years. My life turned around in many respects. Its 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. So, yeah, thanks to social media, ive got a partner now and a big group of friends. We do lots of activities together, so its good fun. As you drive into penzance, youll 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 the charity to see how their campaign has been getting on. Chanting grassroots protests for global awareness. Chanting 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 cheering were surrounded by the environment and nature. I think it would be horrible to go. Something you are so close to, to be taken away from you, it would be really upsetting. It is notjust the shoreline that has been polluted by plastics. Local fishermen have been catching it for years too. Now, 160 vessels around the south west 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 weve got the compostable cutlery that we use. 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 hasnt happened overnight, and customers have had to get used to paying a bit more for a substitute. Theres nothing but positivity for penzance. I think people are really believing in the town now and the more they see these all 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. Chanting 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. Its part of their sustainable approach to boost the local economy so it can be open all year round. Susan stewart is one of the pools directors and told me more about the project. Penzance is a really seasonal economy. Weve got lots of really high proportions of people with part time work, so they have five or six part time jobs in the summer, almost nothing in winter. This project will mean were creating Something Like eight new full time jobs across the year, which isnt many in number, but its quite a significant change. Now, we go geothermal and nod our heads. What on earth does it mean and how does it work . We have hot rocks here in penzance. 500 metres down, the granite is quite hot. So, 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, youll have 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, we can help to extend the Winter Tourism or the off the shoulder seasons as we call it here into penzance, and support retail, hotels, leisure, restaurants. Its 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 thats 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 some of them. Im Sarah Gosling and i present bbc music introducing in devon and cornwall, where we showcase the very best local music. And since ive been doing the show, ive noticed a really, really ha p py and kind of 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. Sure, there are a few 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 to our past and to our future. It is a celtic language which was derived from breton in the iron age and was spoken widely all the way up until the 19th century. But if it werent for recent efforts to try and revive it, it would have died out completely. Speaks cornish we have about 300 fluent speakers. And 1,000 to 2,000 speakers of some competency. The music scene in cornwall is actually quite buoyant, theres a diverse of groups coming through, and thats fantastic to see. Some sing their entire songs in cornish but others just play with words and use it a little bit. It all helps this is gwenno, shes 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. I mean, its fascinating. Its been up against the wall, really, and its still here. Its notjust music, though. All across the county, people are taking time out of their evenings to learn their language. We are not appreciated, though. 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 . Um. Yes, i would like to learn a few words. It would be nice to learn a little bit. It is good to see bands singing cornish and keeping it alive, yeah. That is all for our in depth look at how two coastal communities are dealing with the challenges they face. I hope youve enjoyed it as much as i have. From me, simon mccoy, goodbye. Hello. The final day of the year and the decade will get off to a fairly chilly note across much of Northern England, Northern Ireland and scotland. This weakening cold front which has been moving its way southwards over the last 2a hours, introducing some colder air. To the south of this, still something milder and actually much more in the way cloud and perhaps even some patchy light rain across south west of england and the Channel Islands through new years eve. Quite cloudy skies for much of wales, central, southern england, but the further north and east you go, here is where we will see the best of the sunshine. And away from the far south west of england and the Channel Islands, it should be mainly dry. Quite breezy for the western and hte northern isles, and a colder feel for many 6 10 celsius typically the high on new years eve. This takes into new years eve night, where for most it will be dry, fairly light winds. Were going to see some mist and murkiness, particularly over Higher Ground and certainly the cloud already in place across wales, central, southern and South West England will be slowly pushing its way further north and eastwards as the evening and night wears on. Clearer skies across east and north east england and eastern scotland. But heres acloser look at midnight. Most places will be dry, light winds, quite a lot of cloud and, as i mentioned there could be some mist, some patchy fog in places. Clearer skies across eastern, North Eastern england and eastern scotland where temperatures by midnight will be getting closer to freezing, and actually falling a little bit lower as the night wears on. Where weve got the cloud, temperatures will easily stay above freezing. So heres how new years day looks a fairly quite affair across much of the uk, thanks to this area of high pressure. Isobars slightly closer together across Northern Ireland and scotland so a breezier day here and fronts never too far away from the northern and western isles, so thicker cloud here, maybe some light rain. But for much of the uk on new years day, it is a dry day, but with a lot of cloud. Any brightnes or sunshine really at a premium. The best of it probably to the north and east of high ground. And again, quite a cool day. Temperatures for many will not get into double figures. As we go into thursday, these frontal system ive talked about, to the north and west of the uk, will come ever closer, sliding their way south and eastwards, so a wet, fairly windy day across much of scotland and Northern Ireland and eventually that rain will start to settle into Northern England and the far north of wales by the time we get to thursday afternoon. Further south and east, it stays dry. Again quite a lot of cloud but for all of the uk on thursday, it is a windier day but starting to push up some milder air again, so were looking at highs eaily in double figures, 10 12 celsius. Through friday and saturday, we are back to something drier, a little bit colder and also a return of some sunshine. Bye bye. This is bbc news. Im reged ahmad. Our top stories in a surprise move, former Renault Nissan boss carlos ghosn unexpectedly leaves japan where hes been under house arrest, arriving in lebanon. Blazes continue to rage across australia. 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