The shadows lengthen
Plus: Referendum time and Blackpool's riot conundrum
Good evening and welcome to a new month.
We start this week's Lancashire Lead with a reflection from Ed Walker, who guest edited the edition two weeks ago and received a very strong (and positive) response to his sensitive writing about what he experienced during a train ride between Halifax and Preston.
The end of August and heading into the start of September has become an odd time for me.
Four years ago we lost my Dad on 1 September after a short, painful, battle with pancreatic cancer.
I thought I'd write something as I've found it difficult to deal with the day over the last few years. And I've tried different things.
It's become a date in the diary/calendar/family planner to note, in the same way birthdays, wedding anniversaries and other days are. And I've found it interesting how it's affected me as the date draws closer.
Last year I was away for it, away from my family, my children, and it meant a long drive back home to reflect on it - and it didn't move far from my mind. It doesn't take much for the mind to wander back to what my Dad was going through, and then he was at peace that very sunny (I always remember just how bright the sunshine was) on that morning. And my sister's scream, I'll never ever forget that sound, when my Dad did slip away.
It's a poignant date as the 1 September is when lots of things change and the shadows start to lengthen with the signal of Autumn being on the way. It's back to school month, it's start of the run into Christmas for many in their working lives, Parliament returns, people start and return to university. Life goes 'back to normal' in many ways.
But I've found in the week leading up to 1 September then I can be a little less zip, I said to a friend in the last few days 'I'm not feeling too positive this week' - I guess code for 'being a bit grumpy' - this was in response to his unusual 'Tigerness' and bounce that week. I don't usually say things like that out loud, so it was a big step for me to vocalise that - I tend to try and stay 'steady state'. All part of being a father, I think.
I've written about my Dad before, on what would have been his 70th birthday, and I think finding ways to remember and mark the key moments - which now sadly includes the day he died - are all part of the process of grief.
So I'll be working to take a step away from the keyboard for some of Sunday (sadly news events in Longridge meant this ended up being difficult!), and just be with my kids and check-in on my family. That's what Dad would have wanted. But it's also about protecting this date in future years, either taking it off (when it’s a weekday), or making a conscious choice not to do anything too much on it. It goes from becoming another day in the calendar, to being that day in the calendar.
You can see more here about Pancreatic cancer and how the survival rates from it have barely changed in comparison to other cancers.
It’s back with Jamie now and I’ll start by offering my sympathies and thanks to Ed for feeling able to reflect on and share those experiences. It’s an easy thing to say and so much harder to do but if you are experiencing anything challenging - whether it be grief, fear, anxiety or anything - finding a way to talk about it can be massively helpful.
Back in the world of Lancashire news, Michael Holmes has taken a deep dive into the causes of the recent riots for The Blackpool Lead. It all happened so suddenly and so widespread that it was too easy to quickly move past the key questions in his piece:
Why, after such a wicked act was inflicted on young child dancers across the water in Southport, was the response one of violence and not support and solidarity?
Why were local white men moved to terrify women and children only minutes after chanting loudly about protecting them?
And why, in a town that has for its entire history relied on people travelling here to spend their money, have people become so against the idea of offering a welcoming place of safety to visitors from foreign lands?
Michael’s piece includes contributions from sociology professor and author Les Back, Blackpool South MP Chris Webb as well as considering the analysis of other experts across different fields. Those questions are not easy to answer and the long-read is well worth a few minutes of your time.
“Many people here and across the country are disaffected after 14 years of Tory rule. Life has been hard. We heard their frustrations with the Brexit vote and we heard them again at the polling stations when they voted in July’s general election. It’s no coincidence that the leader of Reform was a leading voice in fanning the flames of division in the lead-up to the riots.
“While it’s easy to blame poor and deprived people for the disorder, it’s important to identify the people with influence and power who are targeting them with their racist rhetoric.”
Chris Webb MP
The Blackpool Lead has also now signed up to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, meaning it can share work from LDRs including Shelagh Parkinson and Richard Hunt. Among their contribitions available to read on the site this week are plans to turn the former Fleetwood Radar Station into a ‘mega flat’; an upcoming by-election triggered by new Hyndburn MP Sarah Smith leaving her Blackpool Council position; proposals for a new solar farm at Blackpool Airport; and a decision to keep traffic restrictions at St John’s Square following a trial.
Ed has also been sharing more breaking news on the site, including the tragic death of a man whose body was found outside the town’s Morrison’s supermarket and the tale of a heroic police officer who saved a woman from being swept out to see.
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One of the biggest challenges to addressing pollution and traffic problems is increasing the use of public transport. It’s hard enough to convince people against the convenience of their car at the best of times, but when bus or train services are infrequent and unreliable that battle becomes even harder.
There has been some good news for bus users this week with promises of increased services from Lancashire County Council, thanks in part to a share of the government's Bus Service Improvement Plan fund.
"One of our main aims is to encourage more people to use the bus by providing extra journeys at times that people find convenient.
"Enhanced daytime frequencies and later services are often helpful to people who use the bus to get to and from work, as well as being convenient for anyone going out for the evening or visiting friends and family.”
County Councillor Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for Highways and Transport
The county council says extra journeys will be seen in areas including Lancaster, Garstang, Poulton, Blackpool, Morecambe, Heysham, Halton, Caton, Hornby, Blackpool, Preston and Tarleton, as well as stretching beyond the authority’s borders into Blackpool, Blackburn and Southport. There will also be more frequent daytime services in Chorley, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre, Sunday service improvements between Lancaster and Morecambe and evening journeys in Lancaster and the Lune Valley.
Bus services within Blackpool are also being amended (with some routes scrapped and others added) and you can find out more here in Ed’s piece for The Blackpool Lead. You can also see the full list of Lancashire County Council changes directly from the authority itself.
There are good and bad occasions when Lancashire finds itself in national headlines and this week proved to be a particularly tragic occasion as the Guardian reported on a woman who died 30 minutes after giving birth to twins.
Rachel Galloway’s twins were born by caesarean section but complications led to the death of their mother at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. According to the Guardian, an internal review is now under way as well as a coroner’s investigation. Harriet Sherwood reports:
Galloway, from Carnforth, Lancashire, lived long enough to see one of her sons be given his first feed by his father, Matt Whittaker.
He said there were “tears of joy, seeing them, knowing they were healthy … she was so happy, so proud, so full of love.” Whittaker, 36, is caring for the babies, Noah and Abel.
The couple had got engaged a few days before the twins were born, and were planning for them to be part of their wedding ceremony.
Whittaker said: “She was the best thing that ever happened to me.
“On the Friday we got engaged we ate our meal and I remember sitting there saying to Rachael, ‘Can you believe that this is our life? Life really couldn’t get any better.’”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Rachel’s family and can be found here.
🧑⚖️ A van driver who killed a man in a crash as he sped through red lights at 77mph has been jailed for five years (Blackpool Gazette).
🏥 £150k has been raised to get a terminally ill Lancaster University graduate home to Peru (Beyond Radio).
🐌 Courtesy of myself, there’s an update on the bizarre snail farm operation which was set up in Preston’s old BHS store (Blog Preston).
😔 Tributes have been paid to Colne Market’s longest-serving trader who has died after a short illness (Lancashire Telegraph).
🩺 Some 165 trainee doctors has arrived at Blackpool Victoria Hospital (BBC).
🐈 Pepe the cat has been retunited with his owners a decade after going missing (Blog Preston).
⚽ Community football pitches in Morecambe are set to reopen for the first time in more than seven years (Beyond Radio).
There’s been lots of talk of reopening the devolution deal since the General Election with MPs and council leaders keen to have their say.
Now, one council has announced it will give its residents a referendum on the matter should plans to abolish the authority emerge as part of the latest push for extra powers and cash. Paul Faulkner reports:
Lancashire’s provisional devolution settlement – struck with the previous Conservative government – is currently in limbo as the new Labour administration mulls mixed messages from the county’s local authorities about whether to implement it in its current form or negotiate a new agreement.
While ministers have so far been silent on whether a strengthened deal would come with a requirement to reduce the number of individual councils in Lancashire from the current tally of 15, Ribble Valley’s Tory leader says “alarm bells” are ringing for him about just that prospect.
Stephen Atkinson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he fears some local Labour politicians – MPs and council leaders alike – would be willing to accept the creation of a handful of larger councils in return for what they see as a better devolution arrangement.
In that scenario, he says the final say should rest with residents – not just in Ribble Valley, but in each of the council areas that could face the axe, including Preston, Wyre and Burnley.
“It’s them that it affects and it’s them that we need to have consent from,” Cllr Atkinson said.
“In North Yorkshire, they’ve now got one council between Scarborough and Skipton – a two-hour-15-minute drive.
“As democracy moves [geographically further] away from people, they get more frustrated and less connected to civic life – and to feeling that they have a voice.
“So we think that the residents should make this decision, not politicians or political parties.”
Local government reorganisation – redrawing the council map in an area – has often been a feature of devolution deals in places like Lancashire, where responsibilities are split between the county council and the dozen district authorities. Lancashire’s situation is further complicated by the presence of two standalone authorities covering Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen.
In 2020, when it appeared that reorganisation was going to be demanded by the government in return for devolution, Lancashire County Council drew up a proposal that would have resulted in the abolition of every local authority in the area – and seen them replaced with three so-called ‘unitary’ authorities that would deliver all council services in their patch.
The blueprint would have bound together 14 places to form a trio of new councils covering: Preston, South Ribble, Chorley and West Lancashire; Blackpool, Wyre, Fylde, Lancaster and Ribble Valley; and Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn and Pendle.
Although the devolution agreement currently on the table for the county does not involve a streamlining of its councils, a deeper deal that involved introducing an Andy Burnham-style elected mayor, could make that more likely.
You can read his full piece here.
Once again we finish on a round up of some of the What’s On stories which have caught my attention this week. If you have anything you’d like to see featured in this section or any other feedback, please get in touch on jamie@thelead.uk
Blackpool’s funniest woman is back for a second series on Sky Max
Preston pub to celebrate city's Polish community with traditional music night
Coyote Ugly bar announces opening date for Blackpool at former Revolution bar
Moor Hall in Ormskirk among UK's best places to stay in 2024
Blackpool Pleasure Beach Journey to Hell returns with brand new attractions and 'triple the rides'
Rossendale 60s Festival full line-up and everything you need to know
Preston Pub Festival to return with live music, food specials, tap-takeovers and more
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