In Blackpool there are many derelict and empty sites or buildings where they have great potential for redevelopment but yet they are just left there stagnating.
A few examples of this include- South Shore Post Office (Waterloo Rd), Abingdon St PO (open but wasted as a ‘callers office’), Old Yates (Talbot Sq), pretty much the whole of Foxhall (I have a real bugbear about this eyesore of an area).
In the fabulous vibrant cities of Manchester, Liverpool. Birmingham etc these empty/derelict sites would be sold off to private developers and redeveloped into exciting modern and vibrant projects. The Mailbox in Birmingham and Great Northern Warehouse in Manchester to name a few examples. But in Blackpool we too often just leave these functional buildings to rot. The old PO on Waterloo Rd, a massive building has been empty for god knows how long. But my big question is why is nobody developing these sites or more to the point why are they not being sold off?
I just do not see the point in these companies/landowners retaining huge empty buildings that serve no purpose.
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Apologies John for some silly reason your comments ended up in the spam box.
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The anti-spam thing doesn’t like his ISP!
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All your anti-spam are belong to us!
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Main screen turn on!
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Its disappeared again, I don’t know why I approved it last night
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There are derelict buildings everywhere but whilst they’re owned by private landlords I don’t think the council can do a lot with them and even if they could it would require money – something which the council admits they don’t have much of.
I’m sure Manchester and Liverpool have their fair share of buildings like this too.
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Ah – but there is a big difference between Blackpool and Manchester. It’s not that it’s easier to build (the city has a lot of mine shafts underneath it so subsidence is an even worse potential problem there). It’s not that these buildings are owned by mega-rich people who don’t need the money from redevelopment and can afford to leave them empty (many Manchester properties are London owned though I don’t think there’s as much Manx money). But Manchester is a big commercial centre with lots of money around it – and whilst there are empty shops there too (especially since free parking centres such as Trafford opened up) there’s a large number of people there during the week with lots of disposable income they are willing to spend. In Blackpool there’s not a lot of money, it’s poor transport wise and if you open up a luxury shop who’s going to spend money in there? It’s all concentrated on the cheap end of the market with a lot of trade in useless tat you’d have to be very drunk or high on drugs to waste your money on.
So what business would want to use these fine buildings? What building owner is going to risk his cash there when he’s no doubt got a huge portfolio at his disposal and is likely to get much better returns elsewhere. In fact the reason they’ve probably not been sold is that they’re unlikely to raise the sort of money from sale that the owners would like and they’re waiting to see if the council or government is going to pay them over the odds for it.
What the council can do is to refuse to give planning permissions for the likes of Marton Moss being developed. I know they probably see a nice cash in hand perk from it (not personally – for the town of course, I’m not suggesting underhand deals at all) – but the cost of redeveloping the likes of Foxhall would be much greater than that.
What they can also do is to try to give NEW businesses and industries grants to start up here (rather than the Pleasure Beach which is already here or the Sandcastle). B&M is moving to Liverpool. Why? Because there’s a big fat financial incentive grant for them to move their business from one area of deprivation to another (hardly in the wider interests of the country but what our political system has allowed).
It can also close down pubs and clubs that attract trouble and violence. It can tackle HMOs (which I believe it’s doing both). It can restrict lap dancing venues (can you imagine Harvey Nicks or Selfridges ever contemplating opening up in an area with that sort of attraction?) and things that attract the lower end of the budget range to the prime sites of the Prom. Cheap attractions are needed for the people of Blackpool but they aren’t needed at the prime sites. It can use licensing and change of use laws to structure what goes where to some extent.
It can lobby the government for money for park and ride schemes and better rail links because although some of this costs (the links are merely juggling the timetables around) there’s a far larger cost to paying so many people to sit on their arses all day.
It can also pressurise the police into doing something to catch the multiple arsonists the town has. Would you put a lot of money into a building in a town known as much for its infernos as its illuminations?
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Excellent comment Frustrated but most of Blackpool are not ‘poor people’, I live in a middle-class area and we are surrounded by affluent areas who we need to try and tempt into Blackpool instead of letting Pretend City have them. This is why I feel we should try to gentrify Blackpool and make it a more high quality vibrant destination. I am so sick of Blackpool being seen as ‘unpretentious’ and ‘anti culture’ and other such negative labels. I want Blackpool to gain a more modern 21st century image.
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Where are the “middle class” areas in Blackpool???
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I had this debate with John Bickerstaffe the other day. There are plenty of areas that I can define as middle-class as it has no universal definition. Like Stanley Park, parts of Marton, Squires Gate (where I live), parts of South Shore, Bispham, Norbreck, Anchorsholme.
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These are not middle class areas? They aspire to be middle class but they are upper working class at best.
I like to consider myself middle class but when I meet the real middle classes I realise how deluded I am!
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newton drive area? stanley park?
arent they middle class?
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I would say they are and Squires Gate, houses near me sell for over £300k if that’s not middle-class then what is? Besides like I said there is no accepted definition of ‘middle class’ actually is.
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There is a massive gulf between working class and upper class. My sister has a flat in London worth £750k but she considers herself working class! – in fact she dines out on it. I lived on a council estate in Oldham during my formative years yet my mum considered us middle class. I guess it is more a state of mind, or snobbishness which is what some would say it is….
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They’re just price tags.
Like Jon says, people in London have astronomically priced abodes – it doesn’t make them middle class.
In a ‘ball park’ example, this is middle class: http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/sales/1225456
Stanley Park and Squires Gate are nowhere near middle class – particularly if ‘middle class’ is taken as a cultural label!
There isn’t a strict definition of ‘middle class’ in the UK, but most people know it when they see it.
Your definition is much more in line with the US definition of ‘middle class’, which to us is ‘working class’.
Ultimately, I don’t think it matters. Aspiring to a social class is misleading. If we want Blackpool to be a better place, we should aspire towards lower crime, better education, improved health and a competitive economy. ‘Working class’ places can enjoy those things just as much as any other class. Changing Blackpool to be artificially ‘middle class’ isn’t going to change the attitudes of some of the problem residents who live here. I think that what you might mean is that you want for Blackpool to enjoy some of the characteristics that ‘middle class’ areas enjoy (although on the basis of your definition, ‘upper working class’ might be more appropriate).
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Agreed, class as in charachter is more important,decent people, proper people.
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What has class got to do with house price?
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lol, when did anywhere in South Shore become middle class?
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I agree with Harold in saying that it is an ‘attitude’ not really an object. But many parts of South Shore are middle-class as far as I am concerned, that’s my view. By John B’s definition a top professional doctor, university lecturer or lawyer living in a £400k house in Stanley Park is ‘working class’, I don’t agree with that personally.
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There is a diffence between middle class and a middle class area!!!
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North Park Drive and the adjoining roads aside, I can’t think of anywhere in the Stanley Park area that’s ‘middle class’.
There are a few nice houses around the southern end of West Park Drive, but they’re only a handful in an otherwise average area, similar to most half decent areas in Blackpool. I’d be very surprised if the people who lived around there were mostly ‘middle class’.
Class isn’t defined solely by the house you live in.
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ok ok there’s no need to get nose bleeds over this. . . lets all STOP trying to compete.
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