Productive economic overview

The Productive Economic Overview section provided below is exclusively provided through the chapter summaries of the Socio-Economic Assessment of the Scottish Solway Report (SEASS) and Socio-Economic Assessment of the English Solway Report (SEAES).

These are two separately funded European Maritime and Fisheries Fund funded projects through Scottish Government and Marine Management Organisation respectively.

             

These two projects were both undertaken by EKOS and were completed in early 2020. EKOS created the SEASS and SEAES reports in addition to a chapter summary for each report and a one page overview summary for each report. All of these documents are available on Solway Firth Partnership’s website.

Given the length of the final reports (over 100 pages each) chapter summaries were prepared in addition to the final reports to provide and overview. There were also one page highly summarised overviews created, which are also available on Solway Firth Partnership’s website.

 

Image; Scallops and Starfish on the boat. © Solway Firth Partnership. Photographer; Colin Tennant

Productive economic overview

Scotland

 

Sea Fisheries

Fishing on the Scottish Solway Firth is dominated by scallop and queen scallop fisheries primarily based in Kirkcudbright, with Dumfries and Galloway accounting for 12% of scallop and 96% of queen scallop landings in Scotland. Smaller amounts of shellfish are also landed, including lobsters, whelks, razor clams and crabs. The overall tonnage of landings has declined by 50% over the last five years, with a particularly large fall of 61% for queen scallops. Despite this fall, catch value has increased over the same period indicating a strong rise in the price of shellfish.

Other fisheries activity on the Scottish Solway coast includes salmon and trout fishing, particularly traditional haaf net fishing. However, the retained catch has fallen by 91% over the last ten years, and this is now a heritage and recreational activity rather than a viable commercial fishery. Cockle fishing on the Scottish Solway sands has been closed since 2011 due to sustainability concerns. Various studies have been conducted since then, but none have concluded that the cockle beds are yet ready for commercial harvesting.

 

Marine Aquaculture

There is little marine aquaculture along the Scottish Solway Coast, with a total of ten people employed in the industry in 2018. The most notable aquaculture site in the region is the Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery which produces high quality native oysters and provides the produce for the Stranraer Oyster Festival.

 

Seafood Processing

Seafood Processing is a key sector in the Dumfries & Galloway economy, currently employing around 400 people across the region. The main area of activity is in Annan which is home to Young’s seafood scampi processing plant, and the recently closed Pinney’s of Scotland smoked salmon processor. Pinney’s was by far the largest fish processing employer in the region, and around 450 jobs were lost after its closure in 2018. However, the site has recently been purchased and is estimated to create around 100 jobs when it reopens.

The other main location for activity is in Kirkcudbright, where West Coast Sea Products is based and is a processor for scallops which are landed at Kirkcudbright by its own fishing fleet.

 

Shipping and Transport

There is a long history of short sea shipping in the Scottish Solway Marine region. Today, the primary shipping activity in the region relates to the two Irish Sea ferry services operating from Loch Ryan. A Stena Line service runs to Belfast and a P&O service to Larne. Until 2011, Stena Line sailed from Stranraer, with the switch to Cairnryan offering a shorter route. Sailings take around two hours.

Upwards of 1.5 million passenger journeys are made between the two operators each year, with a large volume of freight also carried by trailer. With a similar freight tonnage carried in each direction, it indicates the importance of the link to the economies of both Northern Ireland and Scotland and, through onward travel, the Republic of Ireland and England.

 

Energy, Aggregates, Subsea Cables and Pipelines

There is limited energy activity in the Scottish Solway with the most notable being the RWE Robin Rigg Wind Farm, with a total of 60 wind turbines constructed, 58 remaining in situ and currently operational, and an installed generating capacity of 180MW. The operations and maintenance base for Robin Rigg Wind Farm are based in England, located at the Port of Workington, with the grid connection slightly further north near Seaton. There is therefore no direct economic activity associated with Robin Rigg Wind Farm in Dumfries & Galloway.

There are currently no proposals to undertake further wind power or fossil fuels exploration on the Scottish Solway Firth, however, there are some proposals for tidal power generation but these are still at very early stages of development and still require all necessary consents. It is worth noting that an area of the Scottish Solway has also been outlined in the Draft sectoral marine plan for offshore wind energy 2019 as suitable for future commercial wind farm development (Draft Plan Option SW1).

 

Sport, Recreation and Tourism

The environment of the Solway Firth supports a range of marine and coastal recreational activities. This includes sailing, with facilities in Stranraer, Kippford and Kirkcudbright, and plans for further development of Loch Ryan as a destination for watersports. There are a number of designated wildlife reserves, managed by organisations including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and Scottish Wildlife Trust, with varied visitor facilities. The coastline also offers popular beaches and bathing waters, with walking routes along much of the shore. The Solway Firth is also one of the best sea angling locations in the UK. Growing tourism is seen as important in supporting economic growth in Dumfries & Galloway, with marine and coastal tourism identified as one of the region’s key draws for visitors.

 

Defence

There is a limited level of defence activity and employment related to the Scottish Solway coast. The main sites are Ministry of Defence West Freugh weapons test and evaluation range on Luce Bay, and the Kirkcudbright Training Area.

 

Historic Environment and Cultural Heritage

The Solway Firth region has a rich maritime history, in a large part linked to its position as a gateway between Scotland, England, the Isle of Man, and Ireland. The historical and cultural assets in the region make a notable contribution to its visitor and tourism offer – the Galloway coastline is dotted with sites of historical significance, including castles, churches, and other sites such as standing stones and cairns. There are also a number of museums, heritage attractions and trails, including the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse visitor centre and the Solway Military Trail.

 

Marine Management and Education

Maritime management includes the statutory bodies that have responsibility for the management, operation, and conservation of Scotland’s seas and coastlines for leisure, commercial and other uses. This includes Marine Scotland and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. At the regional level, Solway Firth Partnership plays a pivotal role in furthering the integrated and sustainable management of the Solway’s environmental, economic and community resources. The Partnership works on both sides of the border, although there are separate marine planning regimes for Scotland and England (albeit sharing common aims).

Education includes research and training related to the coast and marine environment and economy. Provision within the Solway region is fairly limited, although the Crichton Campus of the University of Glasgow in Dumfries offers a range of courses on tourism and the environment.

 

Image; Oyster Fishing. © Solway Firth Partnership. Photographer; Colin Tennant

Productive economic overview

England

 

Sea Fisheries

The sea fishery industry on the English Solway Coast primarily lands shellfish, with whelks, scallops and nephrops being the common species landed. The overall tonnage of fish landed has declined by around a third since 2013 driven by large falls in the scallop, queen scallop and nephrops catch, but offset by a rise in the whelks catch. Whitehaven is by far the largest landing port in the region, accounting for 79% of landings.

Other fisheries activity on the English Solway coast includes salmon and trout fishing, particularly traditional haaf net fishing. However, the overall salmon and trout catch has fallen by 56% over the last ten years, and haaf net fishing is now a heritage and recreational activity rather than a viable commercial fishery. This likely understates the fall in the catch as the figures make no distinction between retained and released fish, and it is likely that the retained catch has suffered a significantly larger fall. Cockle beds on the English Solway sands are currently closed to commercial harvesting due to sustainability concerns. Various studies have been conducted since the closure, but none have concluded that the cockle beds are yet ready for commercial harvesting.

 

Seafood Processing

Fish processing employment has fallen by 60% from its 2011 peak largely due to the closure of the two Cumbrian Seafood sites in Maryport and Whitehaven. The main area of fish processing activity in the region is Harbourside Products in Maryport which primarily processes smoked salmon before exporting to Europe.

 

Shipping and Transport

The contribution of the shipping and transport sector in a large part relates to the freight ports at Silloth, operated by Associated British Ports, and Workington, operated by Cumbria County Council. The total tonnage handled by each port fluctuates from year to year – in 2018, the combined volume was 513,000 tonnes. Nearly all of the freight handled by the two ports is inward, primarily goods and raw materials for use by local industry. The volume therefore reflects the level of demand from manufacturers, the agricultural sector, etc.

 

Energy, Aggregates, Subsea Cables and Pipelines

The most notable energy asset on the English Solway Coast is the RWE Robin Rigg Wind Farm, with a total of 58 operational turbines (2 of the original 60 turbines were decommissioned since construction). The turbines have an installed combined generating capacity of 180MW. The operation base for Robin Rigg Wind Farm is located in Workington. There are no publicly available plans to develop further offshore wind sites in the Solway Firth. However, The Crown Estate are currently holding a leasing round for new offshore wind sites with part of the English Solway included in the Northern Wales and Irish Sea region of the leasing round.

The other notable development is the planned Woodhouse Colliery (West Cumbria Mining), a subsea coking coal mine which is scheduled to start operating in 2022. There are a number of plans for tidal power generation but these are at the very early stages of development and still require all necessary consents.

 

Sport, Recreation and Tourism

The Cumbria and Lake District region received around 47 million visitors in both 2017 and 2018, the vast majority of which are day trips. The environment of the Solway Firth supports a range of marine and coastal recreational activities, and helps contribute to the region’s tourism offer. The available data indicates that most visitors (89%) to the Solway coast are from the local area, travelling less than 20 miles, with the most popular activity being walking. Key locations include the popular beaches at Allonby and St Bees, which are also the two currently (2019) designated bathing water sites on the English Solway coast, and a number of wildlife and nature reserves run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Natural England, and the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Other coastal and marine recreational activities include sailing, with marinas in Maryport and Whitehaven, and sea angling. A Cumbria Coastal Activities Centre is being developed in Whitehaven.

 

Historic Environment and Cultural Heritage

The Solway region has a rich maritime history, in a large part linked to its position as a gateway between England, Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. The historical and cultural assets in the region make a notable contribution to its visitor and tourism offer, and provide an educational resource and contribute to the sense of place. This includes local history museums in Silloth, Maryport, Workington and Whitehaven, while the Solway Military Trail promotes the region’s military history, particularly related to the Second World War. Hadrian’s Wall, one of the most important Roman sites in Britain, also runs to Bowness-on-Solway on the Solway coast.

 

Marine Management and Education

Maritime management includes the statutory bodies that have responsibility for the management, operation, and conservation of England’s seas and coastlines for leisure, commercial and other uses. This includes the Marine Management Organisation and the North West Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority. At the regional level, Solway Firth Partnership plays a pivotal role in furthering the integrated and sustainable management of the Solway’s environmental, economic and community resources. The Partnership works on both sides of the border. There are separate marine planning regimes for Scotland and England (albeit sharing common aims).

Education includes research and training related to the coast and marine environment and economy. Specific education and training courses within the Solway region that relate to its marine environment are fairly limited. Research on the Solway’s natural and historic marine and coastal environment is undertaken by a range of agencies and organisations, although largely based outside of the area.

 

Image; Port of Workington. © Solway Firth Partnership.