Mike Fennell The Politics Show South West

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Staff at Bookham Technology were hard-hit

Despite some of the apparent affluence in the South West - take house prices for instance - the region does knows the other side of the coin only too well.

Take Torbay, for example. The telecoms boom which brought prosperity to the resort some six years ago has been followed by a digital downturn.

Latest figures show average male earnings a third below the national average. Now the resort is desperate for new sources of funds to kick-start the economy.

As the first visitors arrive in Paignton and begin dipping tentative toes in the chilly early summer waters, everyone in Torbay is keenly aware just how critical the coming months will be for the local economy.

Manufacturing decline

The problem is that the resort is too dependent on tourism and has been ever since the decline of its manufacturing industry, exemplified by the cutbacks at the former electronics giant, Bookham Technology.

At its peak when it was Nortel, there were nearly 5,500 people employed at this site.

It was the largest manufacturing company in the South West. But that was five years ago.

Today, Bookham Technology employs just over 200 staff and this week they learned that their number is to be cut by half.

Jobs for life?

Alan Faulkner thought he had a job for life at Nortel.

He was one of those made to walk the plank: "I was one of the last to go because all my friends and workmates that I'd been there with before, they all went as well and it was a really demoralising time.

"I expect some moved away just like they got swallowed up. You don't hear all the stories and all the hard-luck stories, you just know that some people are not as well off as they used to be and it's a struggle for them and their families, especially if you're bringing up a young family. It is very, very hard."

Despite the difficulties, there are jobs in Torbay - especially at this time of year. Unemployment currently stands at 2.3%. But seasonal work is poorly paid.

Higher earning, all-year round jobs are much harder to find whether you are local or a migrant worker, like Arthur Pomper, a political science graduate from Poland.

He said: "I am working as a waiter now but I want to find a better job.

"I am journalist and I want to be a journalist also here in England. This is my dream."

Torbay's MP Adrian Sanders said the issue of unemployment was a red herring.

He said: "What is important is having high quality employment.

"We suffer very much from low quality employment, short-term contracts, part-time jobs, low-waged employment opportunities and what we need is jobs that bring increased income."

Elegant decay?

The cracks are beginning to show. The fading Victorian elegance of Princess Gardens and the Pavilion, one of the tourism gems in Torquay's tiara masks deeper concerns.

The gardens are sinking and taking the Pavilion down with them - because the promenade is cracking up after of years of neglect.

An emergency meeting will be held this week, but it will all require millions of pounds to salvage.

The hope is that any solution will bring jobs and prosperity.

Across the Bay, more than one in five of the working population is claiming benefits - twice the Devon average.

And another government poverty indicator shows that Torbay is the ninth most deprived urban area in the country, and the worst off in the South West.

But all is not bad news. Thanks largely to Objective Two funding from the EU, Phase three of Torquay's harbour development will bring a new slipway and improvements to Beacon Quay, making it more accessible to the public.

EU funding ends

But Objective Two comes to an end in 2006. What will replace it will be far more competitive.

Torbay is now looking to renew the Assisted Area Status it had before the Nortel boom years.

Alan Denby, a spokesman for the Torbay Development Agency, said: "It is important because although we are standing on this fabulous marina here with a lot of wealth on display, within half-a-mile there are real problems in Torbay.

"We have wards that are suffering in deprivation terms but also our businesses do not perform as well as they would like or as we would like and we'd like to see them helped to create more jobs and wealth for the Bay.

"It will give them a real financial boost because grants arranged from �10,000 to millions and for cities like Torbay and the businesses we have here, some of which are quite forward looking, it would be a massive shot in the arm."

Torbay's hopes are now pinned on the Department for Trade and Industry, including the resort on its draft map of designated assisted areas when it is published in the summer.

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