High-profile content creators targeting Blackpool presenting narrow, misleading picture

“Don’t come to this town in the UK” - quote from a creator we wish hadn't

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

If you form your opinion on any place - or subject - based on what you see on social media, it’s reasonable to conclude that opinion would be negative. Such is the way in which conversations are had online.

But it’s YouTube where people are really making money out of how they present Blackpool. Blackpool knows it has problems, but they are rarely presented accurately, fairly or in a balanced way by high profile content creators who visit the town.

It’s a challenge to combat the sort of message these creators give - and how unmoderated the content they post is - but Blackpool Council has a plan that, if nothing else, acknowledges the problem

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Blackpool briefing

🪨 Blackpool Council has responded to concerns over the safety of proposed rock groynes for Blackpool beach – and insists they are the best option to safeguard the resort’s famous golden sands. It comes after a Blackpool councillor, Cllr Gerard Walsh, questioned if the rocky structures were safe after highlighting a number of instances in which children had become trapped in similar structures elsewhere. The groynes have been proposed as part of the Blackpool Beach Management Scheme, a multi-million pound coastal protection project led by Blackpool Council and being delivered by international infrastructure group, Balfour Beatty. A planning application for the massive project has just been submitted to the council.

Project that will transform Blackpool beach could also delay progress on potential arena site

🚧 A former Blackpool councillor has launched a stinging criticism of plans to demolish more than 300 homes in the town’s Revoe area. Tony Williams, the former leader of Blackpool Council’s Conservative group for eight years, says the council has not done enough to support residents who face the loss of their homes as part of controversial regeneration plans. Mr Williams says the council should have learnt vital lessons after an inquest found that the “relentless stress” of a Blackpool Council Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to demolish his home for the Multiversity project contributed to the suicide of 34-year-old Alistair Taylor in 2025. The father-of-two died following a two-year dispute over his Milbourne Street home’s valuation, which reporting by The Blackpool Lead revealed he described as a “hostile” process. Mr Williams said: “I was concerned about the mixed messages the council were giving to residents in this area many of which are extremely worried as to where they will find alternative places to live “I don’t think the council has done enough to support these residents, many of whom are seniors and have mobility issues. “Have they used due diligence in respect of how this is going to impact people’s lives?

'We are being forced out': Council accused of displacing community with regeneration plans

🏠 Proposals to create new apartments in one of Blackpool’s most iconic buildings have been amended. The former Woolworths building in Blackpool Town Centre recently housed a Sports Direct store and before that, Pricebusters. In July last year, an application was submitted for use of the third, fourth and fifth floors as 38 self-contained apartments. However, the proposals have been revisited and are now for only 32 apartments. The scheme is awaiting planning approval. The impressive Art Deco building, which opens onto both Bank Hey Street and the Promenade and features a prominent clock, was first opened as one of the UK’s largest Woolworth buildings in 1938.

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High-profile content creators targeting Blackpool presenting narrow, misleading picture

Photo by Mark mc neill on Unsplash

By Michael Holmes

Town hall chiefs are set to counter online Blackpool bashing by paying influencers to visit the resort and promote it to their followers.

It comes after a string of trips by high-profile online content creators, including Kurt Caz, who made a series of claims about the resort to his more than four million YouTube subscribers and has been accused of presenting “a narrow, exaggerated and misleading picture” of life here.

The South African’s recent video - headlined “Don’t come to this town in the UK” - has a manipulated thumbnail appearing to show a reveller aggressively challenging him - when the uploaded footage actually shows him repeatedly shaking his hand and telling him he is a fan.

Caz, who was also in the national headlines recently after being accused of using AI to add a balaclava to a man’s face and change shop signs from English to Arabic, uses his 48-minute film to say: “I’ve been all around the world; this is up there with probably some of the most dodgy places I’ve ever been.

“I feel an air of hostility, like something might just kick off any second. You know what I mean? Like some drug dealer might not like us filming and try to stab us or something.”

At a cash machine outside Coral Island in the town centre, Caz is seen pleading for protection from fellow YouTuber @WendallExplores, who was himself criticised last year for comments made to an Aboriginal man during a street interview in Australia.

“Hopefully we’re not going to get robbed,” Caz says on a sunny afternoon last year while wearing a rastacap in the colours of the Jamaican flag.

“I’ll protect you,” says Wendall, in a pink kiss-me-quick hat.

Caz adds: “You watch my back, please. Make sure no crackies come and mug me.”