Showtime in Blackpool, devolution disagreements, mystery chicken dumper
The Lancashire Lead - March 24, 2024
Hello and welcome to the first Lancashire Lead. Each week, this will be your one stop shop for the big stories across the county as well as the ones which may have passed you by.
It can be a lot harder to find those interesting articles lately in no small part thanks to various changes from the likes of Google and Facebook. So I’ll look to bring them together in one handy collection for you to enjoy each Sunday morning as well as some original content you’ll only be able to read here..
As well as long reads from our own Lead titles, this will be used to help you find the best content from local news sites whose great work can go all too unseen. It’ll also look to flag any times the national publishers look this way and feature recommendations on what you can enjoy doing across this glorious county each week.
To make this as worthwhile and valuable as possible, I’d love to hear your feedback. If you have a suggestion, criticism or idea of what you’d like to be included, please get in touch and any feedback will be gratefully received at jamie@thelead.uk
🎞 Antonia Charlesworth Stack has a fantastic long-read for this week’s Blackpool Lead on the rebirth of cinema in the seaside resort. It comes as the Backlot Cinema opened its doors for the first time on Friday (The Blackpool Lead).
🚨 Two men have been jailed for the unprovoked killing of trainee barrister Jack Jermy-Doyle in Preston city centre (LancsLive).
⮑ Jack’s heartbroken mum spoke outside Preston Crown Court to warn people against violence (Lancashire Post).
🚓 A teenager smiled in court as he was handed a life sentence for killing another man in Ormskirk town centre. Rachel Smith covered the trial which heard Henry Houghton used a rock stuffed into a sock during a brawl in the market town (LancsLive).
💧 The firm which manages Lancashire’s water supplies appeared in court this week. United Utilities is one of five such firms which is alleged to have failed to reveal the true scale of sewage discharges and spills made into UK waterways (LancsLive).
👩⚕️ A nurse who ate patients’ food and failed to promptly or adequately respond to breathing difficulties has been struck. Teresa Bacon, who worked at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, was “found to be incompetent, having put patients at risk of physical and emotional harm”, writes Catherine Musgrove (Lancashire Post).
❌ Campaigners say children in Lancashire are being "failed" and "forgotten" as new figures showed the desperate scale of poverty currently being experienced (LancsLive).
"We cannot go on like this. There is no reason children should be going without food, heating, toys, or beds.
"Families need an adequate social security system that keeps children out of poverty, and provides them with a basic level of safety and security."
Meghan Meek-O’Connor, Save the Children
💃 Lots of excitement greeted the opening of Showtime, Blackpool’s new £13m museum dedicated to its entertainment heritage. Among the early visitors, The Daily Telegraph’s Chris Moss returned to Lancashire to check out Showtime and had plenty of good things to say (Daily Telegraph).
🎢 Meanwhile, Blackpool Pleasure Beach has been named as the second most visited UK attraction outside of London, (Blackpool Gazette).
⮑ And the Blackpool Illuminations will shine for even longer next winter (Visit Blackpool).
🌊 But there are also alarm bells ringing in the town as its council warns parts of the beach could be lost forever if £11m of funding for its sea defences isn’t secured (Blackpool Gazette).
🐓 Business owners in Blackburn have been left baffled by a mystery man who parks up to dump boxes of raw chicken on the ground, writes Shuiab Khan. We’ve all been frustrated by BMW drivers at some point but this one has left people spitting feathers (Lancashire Telegraph).
🏥 An investigation is under way into why two patients endured waits of more than 150 hours in Lancashire’s accident and emergency system (Blog Preston).
❓ In an in depth interview, Luke Beardsworth took Preston City Council leader Matthew Brown to task over a number of issues including the Guild Hall, the Shankly Hotel, devolution and high council tax rates (Blog Preston).
😡 Councillors have joined the pushback against the rollout of telegraph poles across Lancashire’s street. Designed to provide faster broadband connections, the poles have drawn ire from neighbours unhappy at their appearance and the fact they do not need planning permission, meaning many do not know about the plan until after it happens (LancsLive).
🗞 A Lancashire MP has accused the Prime Minister’s office of briefing negatively against him. Former Tory party Chairman Jake Berry made the claim directly to the Prime Minister at a 1922 Committee meeting (Standard).
🎥 Film crews have returned to Burnley as filming begins for the sequel to Bank of Dave, based on the true life story of Dave Fishwick. Rock band Def Lepperd will appear in the film and may enjoy a return to Lancashire after playing last year’s Lytham Festival (Lancashire Telegraph).
🪧 A Nelson road has been renamed in honour of Laura Nuttall, who was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumour aged just 18 and spent her last years completing an extraordinary bucket list and raising huge amounts of money for charity (LancsLive).
🎅 Tributes have been paid to Darwen’s very own Santa Claus and former toy shop owner (LancsLive).
🛍 A lovely blast of Nostalgia from Jack Marshall as he delved into the archive for a look back at the city centre’s shops and businesses of bygone years (Lancashire Post).
🏅 A retired engineer has been named a Cancer Research UK Honorary, an accolade previously given to his late wife. Arnold Ashworth, 95, has been raising money for charity for six decades.
Elections in Focus
🗳 The recall petition issued against Blackpool South MP Scott Benton is now well underway - everything you need to know about the petition is here. Meanwhile readers of the Blackpool Lead newsletter will have seen that Benton has managed to invite more criticism of himself through comments about the recall process. You can sign up here to receive future editions.
🚂 Eden Project Morecambe is a big point of interest for the Lancashire Lead and there’s an update here from Robbie MacDonald as councillors last week said more rail stations are going to be needed when the attraction is built (BBC).
⮑ Earlier this month, an Eden Project trustee and long time backer of the Morecambe plan quit his role over concerns about how the plans are progressing (Beyond Radio).
🌹A key milestone was reached this week as all three upper tier councils backed the final draft of the county’s devolution agreement. But much unhappiness remains at the lower borough council level. Paul Faulkner has the latest (Lancashire Telegraph).
We look back on a dark week in Lancashire’s history, returning all the way to the 17th century. In March 1616, priest John Thules (also recorded as Thulis) and weaver Roger Wrenno managed to escape from imprisonment at Lancaster Castle. The pair were captured the following day and sentenced to death, with their killings taking place on March 18.
On the first attempt to hang Mr Wrenno, the rope snapped and he was given the chance to save his life by denying his faith. But Mr Wrenno is said to have dismissed the opportunity, saying:
“If you had seen that which I have just now seen, you would be as much in haste to die as I am now.”
A new rope was found and he was executed with Mr Thules, whose quarters were then displayed in Lancaster, Preston, Wigan and Warrington. You can find out more about the pair and other Lancaster Martyrs here.
If you’ve read much of my previous work, you’ll know I’m keen to encourage people to get out walking and exploring Lancashire. This week, I spent a morning enjoying a muddier than expected stroll around Parbold in West Lancs, starting from the excellent Wayfarer pub.
We chose option two on this list of suggestions - the resting point with views from Southport to Blackpool and the Lakes is well worth a stop. If you do head this way, top tips would be to add a visit to Taylor's Farm Shop while you're nearby and to not forget your walking boots and ruin a good pair of trainers like I did.
That’s all for this week’s edition, thanks for reading and once again - feedback is welcome at jamie@thelead.uk