Levelling Up level outs
Plus: Blackpool Hospital job cuts, church for sale, and the Netflix-inspired bomb plotter
Hello and welcome to today’s edition of The Lancashire Lead. We start with a look at Levelling Up and how developments in two of the county’s biggest areas are looking much more complicated than first expected.
In both Blackpool and Preston, council leaders find themselves pleading with government officials for permission to modify the originally agreed plans - which relate to millions of pounds of planned works.
First, to Blackpool where time pressures mean proposals to restore the former Post Office building on Abingdon Street could be at risk. Shelagh Parkinson reports from the latest meeting of the Blackpool Town Deal Board where it was heard that delays securing the results of intrusive structural surveys mean the required deadline could be missed. And it’s not the only project which could be at risk:
A £15m contribution from the Levelling Up Fund towards a new town centre access scheme in Blackpool is also reportedly under threat as the money needs to be spent by the end of March 2026.
The Town Deal meeting minutes say the scheme cannot be delivered by that deadline as “such extensive works being delivered at one time would have a major negative impact on the flow of traffic in the town centre”.
The council is seeking to extend the deadline for the money to be spent by to the end of March 2028.
Blackpool Council leader Coun Lynn Williams has previously said she is confident Blackpool’s regeneration strategy is safe.
She said: “The majority of our Levelling Up projects are now underway, they have formal contracts and funding agreements in place and we don’t believe they will be affected.”
Meanwhile, over in Preston it is funding rather than timing which is causing problems (though deadlines have also been an issue in terms of the Old Tram Bridge replacement)
Plans to redevelop Ashton Park to include all weather football pitches caused plenty of controversy and were in a big factor in the controlling Labour group losing council seats in the recent local elections.
Now, after taking those political and losses, the council is planning to drop that element of its plans after all, blaming spiralling costs for making the previously agreed plans no longer viable.
However, local democracy reporter Paul Faulkner has revealed that a staggering £850k had already been sunk into the now abandoned project. He writes:
The figure was reported to a Preston City Council meeting at which the controversial overhaul – which would have seen the creation of a 3G football pitch, six grass playing surfaces and a two-storey sports pavilion – was formally ditched.
As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed last month, the ruling Labour group on the authority had already opted to drop the proposed redevelopment of the Pedders Lane site after a £5m shortfall opened up in the package of Levelling Up Fund projects of which it formed the largest part.
Members of the full council have now voted by a majority to ask the government for permission to use the £9.7m earmarked for Ashton Park to save the other regeneration schemes being funded from the same £20m levelling up pot – all but one of which will otherwise collapse in the face of spiralling costs.
However, a council report outlining the revised plans shows an £851,546 costing for the Ashton Park project – even after it has been jettisoned.
It is believed that the government will not seek to recoup from local authorities themselves any so-called “sunk costs” – money spent upfront on Levelling Up Fund projects that do not come to fruition. However, such amounts are nevertheless taxpayer cash.
The expense barely got a mention at Thursday’s council meeting – but the LDRS asked the city authority for a breakdown of how the bill had been built up. That revealed that the money had gone on the detailed preparations needed for a development that will not now see the light of day.
Specifically, the costs relate to services secured from architects, landscape designers and engineers – along with a raft of pre-construction investigations, including topographical and ecological surveys. All are understood to have formed part of a pre-contract service agreement entered into in order to get the £9.7m vision for Ashton Park off the drawing board.
In addition, the LDRS has been told that further direct costs were incurred on legal advice, programme management and what are described as “client representative services” – which usually involve wide-ranging support provided as part of the delivery of complex projects.
In the only reference during the meeting to the costs accrued on Ashton Park, Liberal Democrat opposition councillor Fiona Duke said there would now be “absolutely nothing to show” for what had been spent
“If that isn’t a waste of money, I don’t know what is,” she said.
Over on the Blackpool Lead, which arrives in inboxes every Thursday, there’s been plenty going on. Michael Holmes once again proves himself as the man with the inside track on all things Blackpool Victoria Hospital with this piece on a jobs cuts drive which was launched as part of cost cutting efforts.
According to Michael, some 40 out of 56 applications for the ‘mutually agreed resignation scheme’ were rejected and now a second round will be launched in September due to “lower-than-expected take up of the scheme”.
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Also published this week were the details of a fundraiser set up in memory of a young woman who was found dead in Gorton Street. Gila Brown was aged just 27 years old and was described by friend Katie Morgan as someone who “touched a lot of hearts and will never be forgotten”
Ed Walker also shares the story of a man jailed after planning to blow up a Blackpool bank after watching a Netflix documentary and there’s a report of Blackpool Council’s plans to give a £500k loan for the electrics to be upgraded at Winter Gardens.
If you don’t already subscribe to Rob Parsons’ Northern Agenda newsletter, I’d absolute recommend checking it out as a one stop shop for all the political news from the region(s). Friday’s edition included a long read on life in Ribble Valley after the Lancashire spot was named the highest earning across the North.
Rob spoke with those in the town about what life is like in a place which just ditched its Conservative MP Nigel Evans after 32 years - he also spoke with Evans himself as part of a feature which is also available in podcast form.
Three years ago I reported on the closure of a 150-year-old Methodist Church in the sleepy village of Hesketh Bank. The decision clearly caused disappointment for those involved in the church but, I was told, came as a result of falling parish numbers.
For a little while I tried to find out what would happen to the building without any particular success and the building continued to sit empty for some time. Well, now it appears there’s some progress as the building has finally been listed for sale.
You can check out the listing on Right Move, where pictures show the altar and pews are still in tact. And if you’ve a spare £150k and some creative ideas maybe you could bring new life to a building which spent more than a century at the heart of its community.
Before moving onto the headlines, I’ll share an appeal from Lancashire Constabulary which comes from some truly tragic circumstances. The force says that a woman’s body was found at Dawson Lane, in Whittle-le-Woods, Chorley, on Friday but so far they have been unable to identify who he is.
She is described as white, approximately 40-50 years old with short, dark curly hair and a very slim build. She is approximately 5’4” tall and has no obvious scars or tattoos.
Police say she was wearing a black ‘Peter Storm’ rain jacket, navy blue waterproof cargo pants, pink ‘Asics’ sports t-shirt, Orange and Black ‘Crane’ footwear, black ‘Ronhill’ gloves, and a rose gold-coloured ‘Lipsy’ watch and appeared to be sleeping rough and dressed for the elements.
Her death is not currently being treated as suspicious and the force is asking anyone who may be missing a loved one that could match the description of this woman to get in touch with us. Likewise, anyone who has any information to help the investigation is asked to call 101 quoting LC-20240823-0651.
🚨 A man has died after being attacked by an XL bully which he was taking care of (LancsLive).
🏰 Work to restore and repair Clitheroe Castle has been delayed by a year (Lancashire Telegraph).
👞 Lancaster’s oldest and last independent shoe shop will close after 137 years in the city (Lancaster Guardian).
✅ Plans to redevelop Preston’s Fishergate Shopping Centre have cleared an early hurdle (Blog Preston).
😡 Pendle Council’s deputy leader will contest a misconduct ruling after being accused of intimidating behaviour and kicking a town hall door during a full council meeting (Lancashire Telegraph).
⚽ Hyperlocal news site Blog Preston will launch football coverage thanks to a link up with PNE fanzine The Nose Bag (Behind Local News).
It’s been a little while since I’ve included this feature and it returns with two anniversaries this week.
First up, we look back almost 400 years to the Battle of Preston where Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army defeated the Royalists and Scots. The battle took place across August 17-19 1648 and resulted in thousands of deaths and many more being taken prisoner.
You can read more about it here from Visit Preston or from the National Civil War Centre.
Secondly, this week also saw the anniversary of one of the most infamous chapters in Lancashire’s long history - the hanging of the Pendle Witches.
Nine of those accused - Alizon Device, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Anne Whittle, Anne Redferne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock and Jane Bulcock – were hanged at Gallows Hill on August 20 1612, while Elizabeth Southerns died while awaiting trial.
A petition to pardon all the so-called witches who were condemned to death attracted more than 13,000 signatures this year, enough to earn it an official response from the Government. However, when that response landed in March it did not provide the desired outcome:
The Government acknowledges the historic injustices of people accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries. However, there are no plans to legislate to pardon those who were convicted.
While there have been no big developments on the devolution front this week, the subject has again come up in a discussion with new South Ribble MP Paul Foster.
Foster spoke with Paul Faulkner to reflect in his first 50 days since the General Election, covering topics including the transition from council leader to MP; the decision to remove winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners; and the impact of his new role on his family.
You can read the full article here on the Lancashire Post but here is the devolution context:
Lancashire’s 15 local authorities have spent eight years discussing – and usually disagreeing about – the kind of devolution settlement the county should get. But Foster says now is the time for the “parochial arguments” to stop.
“The Labour government aren’t going to allow internal squabbling to prevent residents of Lancashire getting the deal that they need. I’m going to push the government – and if we need to change the legislation to bring a deal about, then that’s what we need to do.
“I said [as council leader] the current deal wasn’t delivering what devolution is required to deliver. Now we’ve got the best opportunity that we have ever had in our political lifetime [to ensure that it does].
“This will deliver the huge investment into the county that we’re so desperate for – even down to the low-level issues [like] potholes.
“Look at the benefits [devolved areas like] Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester are receiving, particularly when it comes to infrastructure – and it’s criminal that we keep missing out.”
Although the new MP would welcome the Andy Burnham-style elected mayor that comes with the deepest devolution deals, he has largely shied away from the culling of some district councils – like the one he used to lead – which is another potential pre-condition for the areas that want the maximum amount of local power.
While stressing that no demand to simplify Lancashire’s local authority map has yet been made by the government, he concedes that if the best deal goes hand in hand with sweeping changes to council structure, then the county would “have to have a very grown-up conversation about it”.
Once again, we’ll finish on a few What’s On stories from the past week but first I’ll give a mention to a couple of places I visited last weekend. First up is the somewhat neglected but incredibly serene Haskayne Cutting Nature Reserve which is set around a former railway track. The track, in West Lancs, was closed as a result of the Beeching cuts and there is now water running under the bridge on Station Road rather than trains.
A walk around the reserve took me and the kids barely half an hour so we carried on down to the park at Haskayne Village Hall where there’s a football pitch, a ton of play equipment including an obstacle course, and a BMX pump truck which quite frankly I could’ve left my middle child at for the entire day without him getting bored. If you’re nearby with kids and, like me, hadn’t paid a visit before then it’s one which could prove time very well spent. It’s also not far from the pub featured in the first story on this list:
Pub with amazing beer garden that's just been named best in the UK
Britain's Got Talent Star joins Blackpool Illuminations Switch-On line-up
Brand new Lancashire Steam and Vintage Festival set to take place in Wharles
The Black Horse in Preston named as one of CAMRA’s top 17 pubs in UK
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