Colwyn Bay is close to Llandudno and has changed more than many people who speak confidently about it seem to realise. This is a useful reminder that opinions, like curtains, require updating.

The seafront investment of recent years has substantially improved the beach and promenade. The Porth Eirias surf and watersports centre, the rebuilt beach huts and the improved promenade give a seafront that is more functional and more attractive than the Colwyn Bay that older visitors may remember.

The seafront investment has made the beach and promenade much stronger. There is a more open, practical coastal feel here than in Llandudno, less theatrical but increasingly useful.

The beach is broader than Llandudno’s North Shore and has a more openly sandy character in places. The promenade is lower-key than Llandudno’s but benefits from less traffic and more direct beach access.

The town centre has had tougher times and remains uneven. One should not pretend otherwise. But judging the whole place by old memories is lazy, and laziness is unbecoming unless performed with great wealth.

Eirias Park, behind the town, is one of the stronger green spaces in the area, with the Bob Martin Sports Centre and various facilities that serve the resident population. It gives Colwyn Bay a civic infrastructure that the seafront alone does not provide.

For visitors, the best experience is usually focused on the seafront, Eirias Park, nearby Rhos-on-Sea and the increasingly useful food and drink offer that has developed around the improved seafront.

Colwyn Bay lacks Llandudno’s Victorian performance, but it has beach space, regeneration and a sense of still becoming something. That is not a bad position to occupy.

The contrast between Llandudno (composed, Victorian, self-aware) and Colwyn Bay (less polished, more open, actively regenerating) is instructive for anyone interested in how coastal towns manage their relationship with economic change.

Do not dismiss it as the place before Llandudno. Sometimes the place before the grand entrance is where the more interesting work is being done.