Residents' concerns seven years after only high school closed in Mablethorpe

• Video report by Amelia Beckett

Residents of a seaside town which lost its only high school seven years ago say it is having an impact on the area's ability to attract families and workers.

Mablethorpe's Monk's Dyke Tennyson College closed despite protests in 2016 after governors said it had insurmountable financial problems and falling pupil numbers.

Pupils now face a 90-minute round-trip to get to the nearest secondary schools in Alford or Louth.

Mother-of-three Francesca McGowan worries about the distance between home and her children at school. She said: "In an emergency, getting to them is a lot harder."

She said she would have reconsidered moving to Mablethorpe if she had known the school would close.

"Not having a secondary school education would be a big factor, especially having three children

"Maybe I would live somewhere like Alford or Louth because there is a secondary school there."

Emma Howseman's 16-year-old son is about to start at Lincoln College. She said: "There's no transport at all from Mablethorpe. We've had to buy him transport to Louth to get the bus to Lincoln.

"He's 16, so it's had to be a moped. It's four hours a day travelling for him.

"He's got friends that have had to turn down colleges because they don't have the transport."

Shop owner Bobbie Baldwin said the school's disappearance was a big loss. He said: "There's a lot of investment going in [to the town] but I think the main priority is that the local school has gone. That's where investment should be going."

The government has invested £23m through its Towns Fund to encourage people to stay in Mablethorpe.

Building is underway on a new medical campus and swimming pool, using money from the government's Connected Coast town deal.

Conservative councillor Colin Davie, of Lincolnshire County Council, said businesses needed to see Mablethorpe as a viable area for investment.

He said: "We have to make sure that businesses see the opportunities of a place like Mablethorpe and are prepared to invest their own money rather than relying on taxpayer money.

"In terms of skills we're doing an enormous amount of work in providing training facilities."

He denied that the loss of the school was a major factor in failing to attract families.

"I think the bigger challenge is the seasonality issue for young people," he said. "They want to earn proper money."

Analysis by ITV Calendar political correspondent Charanpreet Khaira

Mablethorpe’s been lucky enough to receive a fair chunk of government money. 

But the way it’s being spent misses one of the main priorities for people who live there: a secondary school.

It closed in 2016 because of falling pupil numbers - and that’s left Mablethorpe in a vicious cycle. 

It’s now less attractive for families to move there, narrowing the pool of prospective students and shifting the balance to an older population.

Plans for a new leisure centre and health hub in Mablethorpe seem to bear that in mind, focussing on improving health and wellbeing in a town with an ageing demographic. 

There’s also set to be a "Campus for Future Living", which the council says will put Mablethorpe "at the forefront of medical technology and innovation".

The question is whether a town without a secondary school will be able to attract the health care professionals and clinicians it’ll need to make this campus viable. 

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