Now available: The Lancashire Lead print edition in supermarkets across the county

Read on for every store where you can pick up a free copy

Some exciting news to share with you today as a special print edition of The Lancashire Lead hits supermarkets across the county.

A total of 30,000 copies of the paper version of the newsletter have been distributed and are available to collect from various Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons stores. They feature some of the brilliant work done across the Lead’s titles along with all the General Election information you need.

I’ve not had chance to pick one up yet but based on the digital versions I’ve seen, they look absolutely fantastic. I can’t praise those who worked on them highly enough and am very much looking forward to getting my hands on one.

The print edition of the Lancashire Lead is part of a wider publication of 200,000 newspapers printed by The Lead, with special general election editions including Blackpool, Hyndburn, Burnley and Rossendale being delivered direct to 70,000 homes in the county.

“It’s great to see our independent, in-depth journalism in print across Lancashire for the first time. Being able to walk into a supermarket in Bamber Bridge, where I live, to pick up a copy of The Lancashire Lead will be very exciting.”

Senior Editor (North) for The Lead, Luke Beardsworth

The newsletters are completely free to receive but if you feel able and willing to support our work, there’s information here about how you can do so. You can also read more about The Lead’s wider work here as well as its mission to deliver powerful journalism and the decision to publish these print editions.

Where you can find a copy of The Lancashire Lead, pick it up for free today (Wed 26 June onwards)

Sainsburys, Active Way, Burnley
Tesco, Centenary Way, Burnley
Asda, Princess Way, Burnley
Tesco, Wyre Street, Padiham
Sainsburys, Hardman Way, Darwen
Tesco, Bocholt Way, Rawtenstall
Tesco, Haslingden Road, Haslingden
Asda, Holly Mount, St Mary's Way, Rawtenstall
Tesco, Eagle Street, Accrington
Asda, Hyndburn Road, Accrington
Morrisons, Queen Street, Great Harwood
Tesco, Queens Street, Great Harwood
CWS Market Town, Rainhill Road, Barnoldswick
Morrisons, Pendle Street, Nelson
Asda, Corporation Street, Colne
Sainsburys, Windy Bank, Colne
Sainsburys, Cuerden Way, Bamber Bridge
Morrisons, Station Road, Bamber Bridge
Asda, Sheep Hill Lane, Clayton-le-Woods
Tesco, Towngate, Leyland
Asda, Lower Audley Retail Park, Blackburn
Morrisons, Railway Road, Blackburn
Tesco, Hill Street, Blackburn
Sainsburys, Talbot Road, Blackpool
Sainsburys, Red Bank Road Bispham, Blackpool
Morrisons, Squires Gate Lane, Blackpool
Tesco, Clifton Retail Park, Blackpool
Morrisons, Amounderness Way, Cleveleys
Sainsburys, St Andrews Road North, Lytham St Anne's
Morrisons, Poulton Street, Kirkham
Sainsburys, Flintoff Way, Preston
Morrisons, Riversway, Preston
Tesco, Liverpool Road, Penwortham
Tesco, Blackpool Road, Preston
Asda, East Way Fulwood, Preston
Morrisons, Olympian Way, Leyland
Asda, Ovangle Road, Lancaster
Morrisons, Brooke Street, Chorley
Tesco, Buckshaw Village, Chorley
Asha, Sheep Hill Lane, Clayton-le-Woods
Asda, Cop Lane, Fleetwood
Sainsburys, Cable Street, Lancaster
Morrisons, Central Drive, Morecambe
Sainsburys, Lancaster Road, Morecambe
Tesco, Lodge Quarry, Carnforth
Sainsburys, Park Hill Road, Garstang
Sainsburys, Inglewhite Road, Longridge
Sainsburys, Moor Lane, Clitheroe
Tesco, Duck Street, Clitheroe

You also can read a copy of the printed copy of The Lead online below
The Lancashire Lead (county-wide)
The Blackpool Lead
The Hyndburn Lead

Subscribe to The Blackpool Lead | Subscribe to The Hyndburn Lead

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Elsewhere, a few spaces have become available for our hustings event in Penwortham tonight where South Ribble General Election candidates will be grilled on their priorities and promises. The event is being organised alongside he Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Lancashire Post, and Blog Preston - more details and the sign-up form here.

Yesterday saw The Blackpool Lead co-host a similar hustings for Blackpool North and Cleveleys and it’s fair to say things proved fierier than expected as two candidates clashed and one had to be asked to calm down and ushered back to his seat.

The Lead’s Luke Beardsworth was among those covering the event. Here’s some of his observations from the night:

Paul Maynard was forced to defend his own record during a hustings event in Cleveleys that often risked becoming fiery.

Maynard, MP for Blackpool North Cleveleys since 2010 and now standing as the Conservative candidate for new constituency Blackpool North and Fleetwood, was forced to repay £1,367 for using a state-of-the-art printer, having used public resources for ‘overtly political’ material.

Dan Barker, the Reform candidate for area, called attention to the Conservatives record on the Fylde Coast comparing Maynard to former colleagues Scott Benton - who told a Times reporter he would break lobbying rules for money in Blackpool South - and Mark Menzies - who was forced to quit after an internal inquiry found a “pattern of behaviour” that had fallen below the standard expected of MPs.

Maynard told the hustings: “At the start of the year, a member of my local association made a complaint about me because there was a falling out. Mud was thrown my way, including across the front page of The Sunday Times.

“An investigation took place in parliament by the complaints officer, they went through everything they could possibly go through, and they determined we should be paying £4.50 per month more for one particular item of equipment.

“I was perfectly happy to pay. There was no criticism of me in that report.”

Blackpool North and Fleetwood hustings took place at The Venue

According to Luke, it was “a rare moment during the debate when Barker did not bring the debate back to the topic of immigration”, a subject in which he found an unlikely alliance with James Antony Lionel Michael Rust of the Monster Raving Loony Party

One audience member said: “I pay my taxes, to enter this country I need to do that. Some of the comments [on immigration] have been shocking. So I want to ask the candidates what policies they have to ensure that people are treated fairly?”

Tina Rothery, the Green Party candidate, said: “We should stop the boats - but we should stop them by providing safe routes to our country.”

One audience member then offered to apologise, to applause, for the ‘lack of humanity’ in some of the discussion around immigration - which was prompted by comments from Rust.

Clive Grunshaw, Labour’s police and crime commissioner for Lancashire, was standing in for Lorraine Beavers, who could not attend due to family commitments.

He said: “Lorraine has got a manifesto for change. It’s about change from the government we’ve had, which is without doubt the worst we have had in history.

“They have given us the cost-of-living crisis, the crisis in the housing sector, sewage in the seas. The party that have given us Boris ‘the truth dodger’ Johnson.

“If Lorraine is elected, we will see a Labour government committed to stabilising the economy.

“To get the investment in this local area that is so deprived, we need people who will fight for this community.”

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I’ll bring news from tonight’s hustings and plenty more in the next edition of The Lancashire Lead. Thanks very much for reading and please share and subscribe so others can find it too. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated.