Morecambe: after the cockle pickers, reeling under cuts, but will there be a revival?

Morecambe Bay Cockle Pickers, a photo by Ian Bramham on Flickr.
I listened with horror to the radio in february 2004, as 18 Chinese cockle pickers drowned in Morecambe Bay. My mom grew up there and had taken me there as a child. The landscape had helped form her brusque manner, we were out on the bay and I remember her just grabbing my arm and shouting "RUN!", no questions, arguments, explanations, just do as your told, run. we ran through water to get back to beach, the tide had surrounded us. So I knew what was happening as radio reports came in...

The Chinese were perpetuating a trade that dates to the formation of Morecambe itself; an amalgam of villages united by the coming of the railway, which could then take the cockles to the growing towns of Lancashire or bring the workers to the seaside for a treat. Cockling was then often (but not exclusively) an occupation of women and older girls, as memorialised in this mural in Poulton. 
The resort of Morecambe has been in decline for a while now - for multiple reasons - but the latest blow is particularly harsh as it arrests recent attempts to revive the town.

These latest cuts are on top of earlier ones which robbed the town of its lido and took away many of the facilities enjoyed by visitors. Is there a future for resort towns? Maybe, fuel price rises mitigate against air travel and even car journeys. Rail  - as a fuel-efficient mode of transport -  may become increasingly competitive. Whilst the present round of cuts are hard I would not bet against a revival of the town that gave us Eric Morecambe, Brucciani's ice cream and cafe and Albert Modley .  My grandpa pronounced - after seeing Thora Hird acting aged 14 - that she would never make a professional actress because of her strong Lancashire actress. How wrong could he have been. Her Lancs inflected tones mellifluously floated performances which became more poignant and powerful though time. Her career grew from strength to strength the older she got. She should be the patron saint of Morecambe -her home town- inspirational

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Morecambe in 1901