After 48 years of operating, Pontins on Clifton Drive has finally bitten the bullet as yet more plans for housing development loom. It seems developers are queueing up to concrete our green and pleasant Fylde at the moment.
I don’t think anyone is particularly surprised by this particular news though: the rumours have been rumbling for a while that this large area next to the airport will soon become a housing estate, particularly after plans to build 70 new homes on the former Blackpool FC training ground adjacent to Pontins were given the go ahead in August.
The Gasjet seems to offer that Pontins will be missed, but is that realistic? It’s never been a particularly attractive building anyway and I always remember it as looking like a prison camp. As is pretty standard practise these days, all of the comments on the Gasjet article about this have been removed.
I can see some ramifications for commuter traffic if the housing development comes into fruition. Clifton Drive and Common Edge Road/Queensway are the only two links between Blackpool and St. Annes: the future looks grim for commuters between these two places if the gridlock on Common Edge Road was anything to go by when roadworks were occurring on Clifton Drive.
Add to this the impact of 600+ homes in the Marton Moss area will have on Common Edge Road if Kensington get their way and I’m struggling to see how it will be workable without another road being built. There is the Karl Oyston Ransom Road between School Road and Cypress Point/Heyhouses Lane, but I can’t imagine much commuter traffic wanting to use that in its current state.
Turning the clock forward a few years, what will become of the Blackpool Airport site? Already surrounded by housing estates (or plans for them) and already 95% owned by Balfour Beatty, this huge site looks a dead cert to become the next one in the Council’s apparent desire to approve housing construction on every scrap of land in the town.
And finally – who is going to occupy this plethora of new housing that is being lined up for Blackpool and the Fylde area? Will the housing be affordable, or Kensington-esque middle income Noddy houses?
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Its madness, total madness.
What a wasted opportunity to regenerate Blackpool.
Where will these people work?, impact on roads etc?
or will these houses be bought by housing associations to be let out to scroungers funded by the rate payer.
What a total fucked up state of affairs!;this land should be used to pull in visitors and to generate revenue, i.e. entertainment complexes, not fuckin houses!
If it goes ahead I hope they all remain empty.
Jesus wept.
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I think my views on new housing are well known. Developers want cheap easy to build on plots – and that’s why their always trying to build on sites that currently don’t have a residential use – the land is cheap and when they get planning permission they make an absolute fortune on the whole thing.
The whole government build, build, build plot is pure craziness. It doesn’t allow for employment land, it doesn’t rule out building on flood plains, it doesn’t even really take any account of infrastructure – though LCC really is going to town on trying to get money for an awful lot of projects if the Pontins development is permitter. History at Fylde generally shows that virtually any development is allowed and few if any (s106) conditions imposed.
Looking at the land I don’t think the FBC part of the Fylde coast should have any increase in dwelling numbers now – apart from perhaps the unrealistically big houses being split into a small number of flats each. Blackpool, in my opinion is excessive urban sprawl already and cannot take any more – nor do they have the land.
The government view is have more people, you get more jobs as employers move into the area for the labour available. All the evidence points out that the larger the connurbation, the larger percentage unemployment and deprivation so they really do seem to be doing all the wrong things.
There’s talk at Fylde of course of letting Queensway have another 1,500 houses to fund a link road to the motorway – if it goes ahead then the whole of St Annes and Lytham will become gridlocked even if that road is built. I personally will be opposing any large development – but Pontins at 70 houses really is very small in Fylde terms.
Of course the “affordable housing” thing is ridiculous. It doesn’t mean you get a house at a reasonable price – you get only shared ownership (having to pay rent on the other part) – not exactly a cureall – or there’s social housing (council housing) – but only 30% of all these estates will be “affordable” housing provision. The other 70% will be housing of a type that we’ve already got more than enough of.
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Is Pontins only a 70 house proposition? From the article on the Gasjet, it appears that the former Blackpool FC training pitch just behind it is in line for 70 houses, and a further 90 have been approved around Whitehills.
I dread the thought of 1500 houses off Queensway – there is simply no way the infrastructure can cope, and as we know these companies are happy to come in and profit (massively in most cases) from house sales but are always dragging their feet when it comes to their responsibilities for quality transport links, sites for amenities and schools.
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Well said Frustrated, exactly the same problem exists in Wyre.(Fleetwood)
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