Waterfront

A SEASIDE town in the UK is set to undergo a massive regeneration project to its waterfront area, after closing a popular theme park after 107 years.

Proposals for the waterfront area in Porthcawl include a new outdoor lido and a number of funfair rides.

The lido would be located at Salt Lake which is opposite the marina, and it would also have a gym, a restaurant, a cafe and other facilities.

As for the funfair rides, they would be located on a new site at the opposite end of Salt Lake.

The area, which spans 38 hectares, is set to also have new shops, cafes, restaurants, bars and kiosks.

In addition there will be a new coastal park, as well as buildings and pavilions to use for community groups.

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There will be a site for motorhomes and touring caravans as well and plenty of open space for seasonal fairs, markets, festivals and events.

There is even space for a new hotel.

Plans suggest there could be a splash pad, mini golf, a pump track, a skate park, a multi-use games area, a basketball court, pocket parks, fitness trails, climbing walls, community gardens and various play areas too.

All of these elements would all be linked by a network of paths for pedestrians and cyclists.

Bridgend County Borough Council, which is behind the project, also revealed that there has been a lot of interest in setting up activities ranging from surf schools and saunas, to beach-based fitness training, outdoor yoga classes and so on.

The nearby sand dune habitats at Rhych Point are set to be carefully managed and restored as well, so that they can be used for educational and leisure purposes.

Griffin Park will treble in size under the plan and will feature a new ‘green corridor’.

The ‘green corridor’ will loop back to the seafront, which will feature stepped coastal defences as part of a new promenade creating better access to Coney Beach and Sandy Bay.

For local residents, there will be 980 new homes and these structures will be no more than four stories high.

The project aims to make 50 per cent of the housing affordable.

There will be additional car parking as well.

John Spanswick, council leader said: “The final Porthcawl Waterfront Regeneration masterplan represents a hugely significant piece of work which has been many years in the making.

“While complementing other local developments such as the ongoing multi-million refurbishment of the Grand Pavilion, it reflects our determination to strike the right balance between housing and community facilities, tourism and leisure, opportunities for enabling new businesses to thrive and more.”

Cabinet secretary for Housing and Local Government, Jayne Bryant, said: “This masterplan marks a bold and exciting step forward for Porthcawl, reimagining the seafront to deliver over 900 homes and new attractions that celebrate the town’s heritage.

“By placing local people at the heart of regeneration, we are not only protecting the town’s unique character but also unlocking its full potential as a vibrant and welcoming place to live, work and visit.”

The regeneration project plans follows the closure of the popular attraction, Coney Beach Pleasure Park.

The amusement park officially closed in October, following 107 years in operation.

However, the Welsh government purchased the site back in 2023 to make sure the land could be used for the council’s waterfront regeneration plans.

The waterfront regeneration also includes other projects in Porthcawl such as the £20million Grand Pavilion redevelopment, £9 million on sea defenses, the £3million Cosy Corner transformation – a play area with a large blue whale, climbing nets, slides and ladders.

The Grand Pavilion – an art deco theatre – will be extended, with a new glazed rooftop pavilion with views of the Bristol channel.

Inside, there will be a new studio theatre and bar.

Another £11million is being spent on other projects in the area.

Next, the regeneration project will undergo a pre-planning application consultation on the final proposals due to conclude in January 2026.

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OVER a family dinner at home, I had a proposal for my teenage son. 

If I organised a road trip round north-west Norway, would he leave that ruddy mobile phone behind? 

A few months later and I’m driving our family of five on the Atlantic Ocean Road, ticking off Storseisundet Bridge from my bucket list. 

The name might not be familiar but you’ve probably seen the bizarre, twisty structure in photos — or perhaps in James Bond film No Time To Die. 

It is the longest of eight bridges on the five-mile highway, which connects a chain of tiny islands. 

Search for it on Google Maps and it looks like the road simply runs over water. 

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The perfect place for families – with waterslides, fairground rides and fun

To soak it in, almost literally, we stopped to hike along a coastal path and then over a pedestrian bridge, with the fierce ocean lapping just a short distance below. 

“Ooh, this is a bit Top Gear!” said my wife as we then continued our drive, through a succession of dramatic bends. She wasn’t wrong. 

Norway’s north-west coast is a seriously fun place to drive. 

We’d borrowed an electric Polestar 4 car, which was very much at home in a country where electric vehicles now outnumber petrol motors. 

It’s much sportier and roomier than our own family car, and packed with 007-style features. 

At one point the display flashed “Front radar blocked”, prompting my ten-year-old to speculate that the weapons system had been disabled.

Less excitingly, it was just dirt on an external camera. Audible speeding alerts were welcome, given most roads had a modest 50mph limit. 

The drive from Alesund to mountaineering capital Andalsnes includes a long coastal stretch, some epic bridges, sweeping bends and extra-long tunnels.

But with late-afternoon darkness and driving rain, it was a relief to arrive at our accommodation — a snug and cosy wooden cabin at Andalsnes Hytteutleie. 

Deer stew 

Next morning, my wife and kids enthusiastically tackled indoor climbing walls at the Norwegian Mountaineering Centre. 

We’d borrowed an electric Polestar 4 car, which was very much at home in a country where electric vehicles now outnumber petrol motors

Just next door was the entrance for the Romsdalen Gondola, a cable car which took us up through the clouds to the Nesaksla Mountain, some 2322ft above sea level. 

Relaxing in the Eggen Restaurant at the top, we were treated to views of the valleys way, way below. 

We feasted on local produce including fish soup, deer stew, Angus meat burgers and delicious apple juice. 

From Andalsnes runs the Golden Train on the Rauma Line, described as “Europe’s most scenic train journey”.

Instead, we used our glossy white Polestar to follow the route. 

Parking at the base of Trollveggen (Troll Wall) we marvelled at the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, a mighty 3,600ft. 

Soon after, we passed by the Kylling Bridge — the majestic railway crossing featured in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. 

As we approached the village of Bjorli, we explored the banks of a fir tree-lined river, with a mountain backdrop and the ground beneath us covered by a sprinkling of snow. 

It was a scene so magical, I half expected an appearance from Father Christmas himself. Our onward journey to the city Molde, on the banks of a fjord, included a hassle-free ferry trip. 

When there, we based ourselves for a few days at the Kviltorp Camping site, staying in four-bedroom “sea house” overhanging the water’s edge. 

Over breakfast, fog peeled away to reveal spectacular mountains across the fjord. Just beautiful. 

At the Molde Salmon Centre we learned about the science behind large-scale fish-farming and then cooked a salmon dish in the large kitchen. For our MasterChef-loving kids, this was an unexpected highlight of our week.

Over breakfast, fog peeled away to reveal spectacular mountains across the fjord. Just beautiful

A trip to the Aker Stadium to watch local football side Molde FK — former home to Man City star Erling Haaland and once managed by Man United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, didn’t disappoint either. 

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We rounded off our trip back in Alesund, where an exhausting walk up 416 steps to Viewpoint Aksla is almost mandatory — and great for photos. 

I never did convince my son to leave his phone at home — but at least it’s now filled with hundreds of pictures of beautiful Norway. 

Kevin Williamson, whose previous screen creations include teen romantic drama (“Dawson’s Creek”), meta slasher horror (“Scream”) and teen supernatural gothic (“The Vampire Diaries”), has thrown his hat into the popular dysfunctional-family-doing-crimes ring with “The Waterfront,” premiering Thursday on Netflix. Set in North Carolina, like “Dawson’s Creek,” it’s a soap opera with drug smuggling.

Welcome to Havenport. As crime families go, the Buckleys are not the Corleones, although their involvement with the darker side of life is generational. (Legitimately they run fishing boats and a fancy restaurant and are sitting on a prize piece of undeveloped seafront property.) Grandpa (deceased) was some kind of troublemaker; father Harlan (Holt McCallany), who fondly remembers the cocaine trade of his younger days, when people dressed well and were polite, has checked out of all family affairs after a heart attack or two in favor of drinking and cheating on his unusually understanding wife, Belle (Maria Bello).

Meanwhile, without telling Harlan, Belle and son Cane (Jake Weary), a disappointed former high school hero, have been providing boats to idiot drug smugglers in order to pay off mortgages and loans that might cause them to lose their aboveboard businesses and cherished identity as the Buckleys of Havenport. When things go south, they get drawn in deeper — Cane, reluctantly, and Harlan, almost enthusiastically. It makes him feel like his old self again and gives him a reason to bully Cane — in order, he imagines, to toughen him up. But he’s basically a bully — imposing yet somehow bland.

Cane had a chance to play college football in Miami, but his father undercut his confidence; he is still waiting for it to return.

“I’m really good at almost,” he tells high school girlfriend Jenna (Humberly González), whose unexpected return to town has him emotionally unsettled, in spite of having a perfectly lovely wife, Peyton (Danielle Campbell), and a young daughter. “Almost good enough. Almost a good guy. I’m almost a good husband, father, son. Just not quite, you know.” (Jenna is nominally a journalist, working in Atlanta. “I read some of your articles online,” says Cade. “You’re a good writer!”)

Maria Bello stars as Belle Buckley in “The Waterfront.” (Dana Hawley/Netflix)

Holt McCallany plays patriarch Harlan Buckley. (Dana Hawley/Netflix)

The remaining Buckley, younger sister Bree (Melissa Benoist), is not currently doing any crimes, though she earlier burned her family’s house down and is now permitted to see her sulky teenage son, Diller (Brady Hepner), only in the presence of a court-appointed chaperon. Not that Diller wants to see her at all; she did burn his house down. (“No one was hurt,” Bree points out. “Physically,” Diller replies.) But manners are manners, whatever your mother’s done, and she was an addict, after all. Now she’s out of rehab, going to meetings and working in the family restaurant, though asking to get back into the front office. Perhaps she has an ulterior motive; so many of these characters do.

Also in the intertwined mix: Gerardo Celasco as too-buff-by-half Drug Enforcement Administration agent Marcus Sanchez; Michael Gaston as dangerous Sheriff Clyde Porter, an old frenemy of Harlan, seething with class resentment; and Rafael L. Silva as Shawn, the new bartender at the Buckleys’ restaurant, whose poor knowledge of mixology raises alarms. Topher Grace is on the cast list for a future appearance.

Given that Williamson grew up where the series is set and is the son of a fisherman, one might have hoped for more local color and a little insight into the fishing business, rather than concentrating on the criminal shenanigans and sexy stuff that could happen anywhere and does. (Yes, I have odd hopes.)

Instead, everything’s a little fuzzy, lacking in detail. Characters put on attitudes and get in and out of trouble — there are shootings and scrapes, surprising reveals and shocking events — but few are, or seem about to develop into, interesting people. (Only three episodes of eight were out for review, so something might well pop; still, that’s three hours of television down.) They’re a little bland, even, and what happens to any of them, though of idle interest, is never really a compelling question. Belle stands out by virtue of being played by Bello and given at least one scene in which she seems like a regular, empathetic person, and Bree can be sympathetic, given how much her son hates her. I would counsel Peyton, one of the few without an agenda — so far, anyway — to take her daughter and leave town, but I’m guessing that won’t happen.

If in some ways “The Waterfront” feels assembled off the shelf, there’s enough activity that some viewers, possibly a lot of them, will dig in just to see how this thing caroms into that. That’s the engine that runs no small amount of television. It’s easy enough to watch. And sometimes “just OK” equals “good enough.”