http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 78221.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 78221.html

It's one of my life's strange ironies that the town I've repeatedly bashed the most for allowing itself to fall into a terminal phase of degeneration, dilapidation and ruin (aside from Wigan) - Blackpool - is now where I work.

For my sins I'm now responsible for a great deal of the design and advertising which stretches the length of the promenade.

I equate the task to painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Years after starting the task you finally finish and it's time to do it all over.

I strongly objected to Blackpool winning the right to build the UK's first "Super Casino" (a plan which eventually collapsed due to political in-fighting and bureaucratic resistance from senior civil servants). I figured it had seen more than enough money over the last few decades and had it invested just a mere fraction in developing the promenade it wouldn't have needed government spending.

Sadly, like almost all of the traditional seaside resorts, Blackpool frittered away its money leaving a town centre which is little more than a dried-up husk and a promenade that is nothing short of a decaying embarrassment.

What little investment there's been has come in ever-decreasing quantities. The end-result is a commercial region which is perhaps less than 30% occupied with the only real money provided by the big department stores, supermarkets etc. Whilst the seafront has recently had a bit of a face-lift it is largely superficial and doesn't alter the fact that the horse-manure infused promenade requires many millions of pounds just to arrest the decay.

But it's not just money. Like most northern towns Blackpool desperately needs leadership. A galvanizing, media-savvy figure who can unite the economic and political power blocs into codifying some kind of framework for minimum standards as well as cutting through the suffocating bureaucracy and endemic corruption.

With the costs of holidaying abroad rising it's likely we'll see an increase in the number of visitors to Britain's traditional seaside resorts. But unless Blackpool changes its course I think future investment will be increasingly piecemeal and in ever-diminishing quantities.

I mean, it's not quite reached the point at which that other famous resort town, Great Yarmouth, now sits (Abandon All Hope Yea Who Enter Here!). But the writing is certainly on the wall.

Was up in Blackpool a few weeks ago, staying nearby. Weather was atrocious and so did not get out of the car other than to take some pictures of the rough sea. Was pretty shut down along the front as one might expect at the time of year. A lot of hotels looked as though they had shut permanently or else had seen far better days. The only modern thing was the one things I did not want to be modern - the trams.

I have always loved Blackpool, though it has seen better days, that's true.

They have had to go, as a town, for the only available market which was downmarket. WHich is not to say everywhere is shoite, it's not, and I've spent time in many spotlessly clean cheap B&Bs with fine breakfasts, but the problem is comparing the price of a week in Blackpool with a week in Magaluf.

But they can't win. People will whinge about everything. Like the rickety old trams, which are tiny, and not fit for purpose. It was much the same when people were up in arms in London about the old Routemaster buses. I mean, I loved them too, but come on, it's a modern city, not a pickled specimen in a jar of aspic. The modern trams are huge, comfortable, digital and ten times better as a minimum. AND they still use the old ones which I think get used for bookings and special events, so it's not like they've been scrapped totally. What do you want them to do?

And, exactly how much money have YOU brought to Blackpool in, say, the last decade, because of those trams?

We use Blackpool as a weekend place once a year.
We accept it for what it is, see a show, have a curry, do the round of the 'attractions' with the younger members of the clan.
It's like a wildwest cowboy town in parts, chavland supreme thanks to many of its clientele (spot the snob ) and rundown and filthy in other parts.
But it's like so many places in that regard.

There is a fair amount of money sucked up and there doesn't appear to be much put back.

The prom was revamped out of the need to bolster the sea defences and they wisely took the opportunity to build things like the comedy carpet.
That aside, apart from rust and decay, nothing much changes in Blackpool.

We still go though, but wouldn't want more than a two night stop.

Because it has a tower, people somehow look on Blackpool as an exception, but it's not. What happened to Blackpool was fairly typical.

There is a reasonable parallel with the tiny town of Benitses on Corfu. It used to be a lovely spot, but decided to chase the drunken dollar and for a short time, succeeded. In the summer it became the Vomit Destination of Choice. But, predictably, the next generation of paralytic fighters moved on to the next big thing, and Benitses was left a bastardised, prostitued, destitute place, and I'm sure very sorry for what they had done.

Haven't been that way for a while. Last time, it was like a bloke limping out of A&E after a good pasting. Blackpool isn't quite at that stage yet, but it does now rely in a large part on chav stag and hen parties and the like, and there is a price to be paid for that. As a result of neglect, Blackpool has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, and the biggest queues are at the cashpoints at midnight when the chavs get their drugs money. But as a visitor, you can largely avoid all that, and people are good at turning a blind eye too.

Really?

It's certainly their projection. And the figures do seem suggestive. Takings are up (albeit narrowly).

Strange that given the weakness of the Euro cost of holidays to Spain,Greece etc have fallen

As somebody who has holidayed in the UK in recent years, it is very expensive here compared with popular overseas destinations.