Booming Blackpool
Over the years, Blackpool has seen significant investment and is now a place all the family can enjoy, writes Tracy Hargreaves
Blackpool is a great place to visit. It’s only half an hour from where I live, but whatever time of year I go it always offers something different. There are lots of events throughout the year including the Air Show. More than 100,000 visitors visit the two-day show which features the world-famous Red Arrows plus there’s an array of stalls and entertainment.
September through to November will be one of the busiest periods for the town as the infamous illuminations are switched on. People travel for miles to see them and as a child to see all the lights is magical.
It starts off at the end of August with Ride the Lights. A night when the promenade is closed to traffic and thousands of cyclists get on their bikes and cycle from the south pier through to Red Bank Road in Bispham. The lights are switched on early specifically for the evening, and the atmosphere is great.
But it’s not just the visitors Blackpool is attracting, serving Britain’s Energy Coast, Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone is a 144-hectare site incorporating the existing Category III airport and surrounding commercial areas, just a stone’s throw from the Irish Sea.
Funding has been sought for the first stage delivery of the enterprise zone, with the vision to make Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone a premier business location in the north west. The development starts with a transport assessment for a new access road as part of the first stage of planning application process. The comprehensive traffic assessment will include traffic counts at key junctions throughout the locality, provide initial concept designs for the road layout, and address any transport issues, including parking, walking and cycling elements associated with future development and the impact of jobs growth over the next 23 years.
Lancashire Constabulary has also built its state-of-the-art new police headquarters in Blackpool. The investment is the biggest in the force’s history and will boast energy saving features including solar power panels and rainwater harvesting. Seventy-five per cent of the project spend was with small and medium sized enterprises and 20 per cent of the local spend and labour for the project was within a ten-mile radius.
Blackpool & the Fylde Coast has a very rich economic history and boasts a strong tradition of food and drink manufacturing and back office support activities. It also has an unparalleled history in the use of IT being, among many things, the home of the UK’s most famous computer, ERNIE.
If you haven’t visited before, take a trip and you’ll find out exactly what it has to offer.
