Greater Grimsby, a place that tells it straight…
Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by helen in Uncategorized, all posts, blogs, featured
You can’t get grittier than fishing. Hard, dirty and most of all cold, it’s one of the most demanding jobs with long periods spent away from loved ones. On land fishing communities are also famed for their matriarchs, women who looked after everything while the men were away. It’s what made Grimsby and many other towns and cities along the Humber bank great and why Great is making a come back.
‘Greater Grimsby Lincolnshire’ is North East Lincolnshire Councils new approach to attracting more people to the area. You may be rubbing your head perplexed at this point but bear with me as all will be revealed. A name is an association. It can evoke a feeling, a vision even a smell but it can also confuse, misinterpret and most importantly misrepresent and that is North East Lincolnshires problem. The whole south humber bank has had so many different names in the last century that it’s no surprise it’s lost some identity. By making it simple for outsiders to understand where we are and what we have to offer we might just change those tiresome perceptions of the Humber and Grim Grimsby!
Of course a name is just a name without the support and backing of the community that holds the right to call itself Greater Grimsby Lincolnshire. Whether they reside in Immingham, Grimsby or Cleethorpes, they are places of value and deep heritage. I still believe the reason I have stayed in the Humber, living in Hull and working in Immingham, is the sense of place that I feel. Growing up in a south west communter town, the daughter of Londoners fleeing the city, my sense of place was vague. People are far more transient in the south and community feels lost as commuters rush about disconnected from their neighbourhood and the majority of the people that live in them.
Greater Grimsby has a lot to offer as does much of the Humber region and a new name is only the start. The key is to capitalise on the benefits of living in the Humber through personal experience and sharing. Greater Grimsby benefits from some of the best digital infrastructure in the region. It has a major opportunity with renewable energy and some of the most attractive scenery and beaches. Selling these benefits is not the job of one agency but the responsibility of everyone who lives and benefits now to ensure the future prosperity of this rich and diverse region.
Perhaps we should harness the grit, determination and resilience of the fishing days for the future as new industry’s demand a Great Grimsby Lincolnshire.
http://www.greatergrimsby.net/
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