The Blackpool Lead

21/12/2024

Tomorrow morning's Blackpool Lead focuses, again, on the heritage tram suspension.

It's about meetings that won't be made public and how they took place shortly before the controversial decision was made. And how the council has declined to comment on claims members of staff have been suspended from work.

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20/12/2024

Blackpool is set to get a £17.7m increase in funding from the government for the coming financial year to help pay for services across the town, a rise of 9.1 per cent compared to this year.

It comes after warnings the council will overspend by £7m on its current budget with reserves now expected to plummet to just £30,000 by the end of the financial year from £7m at the start of the year.

The increase has been announced as part of the government’s Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement. which is the annual determination of funding to local government from central government.

Core spending power will increase to £213.7m from £196m this year. As part of the settlement, social care funding will rise by 19 per cent to £26m in 2025/2026 — an increase of £4.2m.

20/12/2024

The RSPCA would like to speak to a man who may have vital information about an incident which saw a gull die after being repeatedly stamped on in Blackpool.

The appeal follows an individual seen allegedly kicking out at a group of gulls in the Springfield Road area of the town at 12.17pm on Tuesday (17 December).

One of the birds is believed to have become caught under an individual’s foot, before the gull’s body is stamped on three times. The animal died as a result of the incident.

Now, the RSPCA has released images of a man who was seen in the vicinity at the time. The charity believes this man may have vital information about the alleged incident and be able to help with their enquiries.

RSPCA Inspector Daniel Tomlinson, who is investigating said: “We’ve received sad reports of a gull allegedly being stamped on in Blackpool, and we’d like to establish what happened.

"We’re keen to speak to this man as we believe he may have important information for us which will help with our enquiries. We hope this individual now comes forward or can be identified.”

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the RSPCA’s Inspectorate appeal line on 0300 123 8018 quoting reference number 01410735.

20/12/2024

Hundreds of thousands of pounds is to be spent upgrading facilities at two key areas of Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.

The work will see investment ploughed into The Olympia and The Arena inside the Grade II* listed complex – helping to improve the visitor experience for events such as the Rebellion Festival.

It comes after Blackpool Council approved a loan for £459,00 from its business loans fund to Blackpool Entertainment Company Limited, which operates the Winter Gardens on behalf of the council.

Winter Gardens managing director Michael Williams said: “These improvements are expected to drive new income streams and increase incremental spending from the diverse programme of events held in Olympia.

“Since 2022, we have embarked on a phased improvement of our bars and catering facilities. The benefits of these investments are now evident in the Empress Ballroom and other refurbished areas, improving both customer experience and operational efficiency.”

20/12/2024

Planners have turned down a Blackpool restaurant’s bid to keep its glazed extension, saying it conflicts with policies designed to protect the character of the Promenade.

The retrospective application for the development, which was built to enable the business to continue trading during Covid, said improvements had been made, reports Shelagh Parkinson

19/12/2024

A Blackpool bar has been refused permission to serve booze until the early hours of the morning during Christmas week because it is too close to people’s homes.

It would have allowed customers visiting the venue to drink until 3am on December 27 and 28, reports Shelagh Parkinson

19/12/2024

The Blackpool Lead is now available to collect, for free, from supermarkets on the Fylde Coast.

19/12/2024

Legislation to tighten controls around home schooling has been welcomed in Blackpool where parents have taken hundreds of children out of school in recent years.

The most recent Department for Education figures show more than 500 children in Blackpool are taught at home, an increase from around 440 in the 2022-23 summer term and up from 187 in 2018.

Currently parents must notify the school which will then inform the council, but new government legislation will introduce a compulsory Children Not in School register.

A bill put forward to Parliament by Education secretary Bridget Phillipson on the same day as Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother were sentenced to life in prison for her murder, seeks to increase powers for councils over children who are home schooled.

Ten-year-old Sara from Woking in Surrey was removed from primary school in order to be home-educated four months before she died.

Parents will be refused the automatic right to home educate their children if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. Councils will also have the power to require school attendance if the home is deemed an unsafe environment.

But those parents providing a good education in a safe environment will be able to continue to do so.

Coun Kath Benson, cabinet member for young people and aspiration at Blackpool Council, said the council already had procedures in place but welcomed tighter controls.

She said: “In Blackpool there are more than 500 children who are currently being home-schooled. While we have support and processes in place to help these pupils and their families, we are currently restricted somewhat by the existing legislation.

“A recent external review praised the work of our Elective Home Education team and the additional steps they took to monitor pupils.

“However our statistics show that home-schooled pupils make up a significant proportion of the NEET (Not in education, employment or training) cohort.

“We welcome any changes that can further strengthen the powers and input we can have in elective home education to ensure that all pupils are reaching their potential as well as keeping them safe.”

Victoria Gent, director of Children’s Services at Blackpool Council, warned a meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee in October that current legislation was “quite weak”.

She added: “We have statutory responsibility but what parents have to provide is quite limited.”

Blackpool recently appointed a dedicated officer to support families of home schooled children in Year 11, who are 15 and 16-year-olds, to give them more information about post-16 options. The post has been funded by education charity Right to Succeed for one year.

Research carried out by the Press Association earlier this year found in Blackpool the most common reason parents opted to home school their children was for lifestyle reasons, with around 90 children doing so. The reasons for home schooling were not known in 23 per cent of cases. Approximately 30 children in Blackpool were home schooled for mental health reasons.

18/12/2024

Work is now ongoing to attempt to recover whatever funds can be repaid to those owed money by Nikal.

Blackpool Council says the setback does not affect its ambitions for the site

18/12/2024

Blackpool is to receive nearly £3m to tackle homelessness in the resort as latest figures show a rise in the number of people without a proper home.

The council will receive £2.86m in government funding which is £875,000 more than last year and includes grants to prevent homelessness, help rough sleepers and fund services such as drug and alcohol treatment.

It comes after the latest figures show the council’s Housing Options team – which offers emergency support for people who lose their homes – supported 300 more households in 2023/24 compared to the previous year.

The overall number of households needing help rose to just over 3,300 compared to around 3,000. 341 people are estimated to be homeless in Blackpool this year, including 157 children.

Figures from the Housing and Homelessness Annual Report for 2023/24 also show the level of homelessness in Blackpool is more than double the national average at 18 per cent per 100,000 households compared to seven per cent for England.

Higher rents and fewer properties due to landlords selling up are among the reasons blamed for more people becoming homeless in Blackpool.

The funding is part of almost £1bn which will be distributed by the government to councils across England from next spring to tackle homelessness.

A report presented to Blackpool Council’s Tourism, Economy and Communities Scrutiny Committee, warns an increase in homelessness “can be largely attributed to the impact that the cost of living/financial crisis had in causing private rents to increase and the sector to contract as landlords had to sell their properties.

“This disproportionately affects Blackpool due to the scale of private rented accommodation in the town.”

However the number of households living in temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs, has dropped in 2023/24 to 110 compared to 138 at the end of March 2023 which is a decrease of 20 per cent.

18/12/2024

The firm which was supposed to be leading the £300m redevelopment of Blackpool Central hit financial catastrophe as a result of its involvement in the troubled site.

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PLUS: Our new print edition is out, Devolution white paper reaction in Blackpool and looking into why men die young

18/12/2024

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17/12/2024

New figures show more people visited Blackpool seafront this summer – peaking at 6.8 million in July – despite setbacks including the cost of living crisis and riots.

Data collected using mobile phones shows footfall on the Promenade was up during June, July and August in 2024 compared to 2023.

Footfall was up by nine per cent in June, 41 per cent in July and 24 per cent in August. It rose to around five million at the start of June, peaked at 6.8 million in July and dropped back to just under six million in August.

The figures were included in the latest tourism performance report presented to a meeting of the Tourism, Economy and Communities Scrutiny Committee. Footfall is tracked using Visitor Insights data which can also show where visitors are from.

17/12/2024

The firm which was supposed to be leading the £300m redevelopment of Blackpool Central hit financial catastrophe as a result of its involvement in the troubled site.

The Blackpool Lead can reveal it was Nikal’s work on the Blackpool site which pushed it from being in financial difficulty into complete collapse.

The full story in tomorrow's Blackpool Lead - sent to subscribers first.

17/12/2024

Blackpool residents can now recycle their v**es after the council’s waste management company Enveco came up with a solution to manage the growing number of e-cigarettes being disposed of.

A special receptacle has been provided at the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) on Bristol Avenue in Bispham. This ensures the safe disposal and recycling of v**es, reducing the environmental impact of these products.

Coun Adrian Hoyle, chair of the Enveco Board said: “This is a significant step forward in v**e waste management, benefiting both the environment and Blackpool.

“Enveco remains committed in providing innovative waste solutions and continues to seek new ways to improve recycling programs for the residents of Blackpool.”

17/12/2024

Health chiefs in Blackpool will investigate issues such as drug and alcohol addiction to learn more about why men living in the resort now have the lowest life expectancy in the UK.

Figures published in December by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show men in Blackpool can expect to live for 73.1 years which is six years less than the national average of 79 years and 10 years less than prosperous areas such as Hampshire.

Average life expectancy for women in Blackpool is just under 79 years, compared to the national average of just over 83.

15/12/2024

Transport bosses have been told they have some “serious questions” to answer about the reasons behind the shock decision to halt Blackpool’s heritage trams.

Sources have told The Blackpool Lead the decision was taken for mainly financial reasons, and the council have ignored questions on the subject

14/12/2024

Keeping it safe!

VisitBlackpool has moved to reassure visitors to the resort’s Christmas By The Sea village on the Prom opposite the Tower