Yarmouth Town.

It was Charles Dickens’ character Clara Peggotty in David Copperfield who proclaimed of Great Yarmouth, “Upon the whole, the finest place in the universe.”

Well, I’m inclined to agree…

Great Yarmouth (GTY) is more than a seafront. More than two-penny slots and donkey rides. More than a beachfront or a seaside resort. It’s a culturally diverse town undergoing profound changes in its social fabric.

As immigrants from multiple ethnic backgrounds were homed or settled in the region, there is a multiplicity of new cultures leaving their print upon the town, with vibrant corridors of ethnic diversity opening in GTY’s once predominantly white neighbourhood.

Over 70% of residents voted for Brexit, the UK’s 5th highest leave vote, yet the 3p’s of picking, packing and plucking have brought people from across the continent to fill the labour gaps.

Rupert Lowe’s Great Yarmouth First party is a localised affiliate of Restore Britain, the further-right, far-right splinter from Reform, which thwarted Reform’s majority sweep of councils in Norfolk County Council at the local elections. The region feels like a weather vane for where the UK could go in the next general election. Ethnonationalism and nationalist sentiment are rising, and the dividing lines between communities in the town are more polarised than ever.

GTY is not the sum of its political bias; it has many talented, creative people living in and around its shores; from the UK’s only purpose-built circus space to world-class museums and galleries, there have often been whispers that Yarmouth could be the new Margate. Though far from the groundswell of an artistic launchpad, the town is hatching a new and unique identity.

I aim to talk with people from all backgrounds, unpick and understand the complex web of views in the town, and tell the stories of individuals who live in a fast-changing town.