Under the skin of the decision to extend the Illuminations season in Blackpool
It has been welcomed by the businesses it aims to support - but there remains scepticism in the council opposition ranks
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
The decision to extend the Illuminations season came after the pandemic - something that impacted almost every aspect of British life negatively (unless you happened to be selling PPE), but hospitality and leisure-led towns like Blackpool especially.
The council believed the decision would help support the businesses through a time when they might otherwise close - and many of those businesses agree.
But scepticism remains over whether or not the same level of trade has simply been diluted across a wider span of time - although said scepticism comes from the opposition at Blackpool Council.
Today we explore the issue at a level of detail you are unlikely to have read before. Thorough reporting like this isn’t easy - and it’s seen less and less. Please consider supporting our work with a paid subscription so we can keep doing it!
Blackpool briefing
🚔 A woman from Blackpool has been jailed this week after attempting to abduct a 7-month old girl. On a sunny day in May, with the child’s parents close by, Nicola Goldrick walked up to the pram in sunglasses and attempted to walk off. The parents and passers-by intervened. She spat a police officers when she was later arrested. The baby’s mum said she is a danger to the public in general. Goldrick has been jailed for 12 months. You can see footage of her arrest below.
🌊 A shocker on Friday evening as the coastguard helicopter was forced to stand down during a rescue after being targeted by - presumably - a laser pen. Crews - many of whom are volunteers - were responding to a report that someone had been seen entering the sea close to Manchester Square at around 11pm. Another helicopter was able to stay air born. Nobody was found and the search was stood down.
Steve Fitzgerald, Blackpool RNLI Chair and Lifeboat Press Officer, said “This was a lengthy and protracted search based on the information supplied, and the deployment of Rescue 936 helicopter was deemed essential to support our Lifeboat crews. It beggars belief that anyone would want target a Search and Rescue helicopter to prevent them doing their lifesaving task, whilst also being a very real danger to the flying crew.”
🚔 A man who abused his vulnerable partner before she killed herself has been charged alongside his mum and girlfriend with perverting the course of justice. Ryan Wellings, 31, was jailed for six and a half years in January for assaulting and coercing Kiena Dawes, who died on a railway line in Lancashire in 2022. During his trial, it was revealed that police were investigating if his mother Lisa Green and girlfriend Emma Croft, 28, allegedly “coached” him on how to give evidence during his six-week trial at Preston Crown Court. Full story here.
🥊 A hair stylist from Blackpool says a charity boxing challenge has “completely changed” her life after she was inspired to pick up the gloves following the death of her grandmother. Tammy Stanbridge, 40, swapped haircuts for uppercuts when she took part in her first fight last year after the heartbreaking loss of her nan, Betty Downham, to pancreatic cancer in 2021. Full story here.
The impact of extending the Illuminations season through the winter period
By Michael Holmes
As pop artist Olly Murs flicked the switch to launch another dazzling Lights season, he continued a tradition that - barring blackouts caused by the world wars and the Covid pandemic - dates back to 1879.
As well as etching his name into the history books alongside fellow Switch-On stars such as actress Jayne Mansfield, football manager Sir Matt Busby, Hollywood director Tim Burton and even the racehorse Red Rum, the Heart Skips A Beat hitmaker has also carried forward a newer tradition - by launching a fifth extended Illuminations season.
More than 20,000 people gathered on the Tower Festival Headland, opposite the Tower, to watch the free ticketed Switch-On on the last Friday night of August, with the concert also featuring The X Factor winner Louisa Johnson, rock band Toploader and local talent performing under the banner Blackpool Introduces.
Through autumn and winter, millions more will walk, drive, cycle and jog under the almost six miles of traditional festoons, tableaux and interactive features along the Promenade.
While the more than one million twinkling lights would have once been switched off again after 66 nights, they will now remain lit over the Christmas and New Year period before going dark on January 4 2026.
But what impact has the decision had?
Has it over the past half a decade provided a huge boost to a town still majorly reliant on seasonal trade, and have there been any unpleasant side-effects?
Is it even possible to weigh the pros against the cons?
One key concern that has emerged surrounds the possible ‘dilution’ of the season.
There are fears that, rather than being packed for a couple of months and then shutting during the off-season to save cash, some hotels are having to stay open for longer - with the associated staffing and operational costs that brings - while not being as busy.
Conservative councillor Graham Baker has questioned the “cost-effectiveness” of the extended season, telling a council meeting: “What seems to be happening is visitors are spreading their visits to Blackpool out now over this period, whereas at one time it was a tighter period.
“You used to avoid the Promenade during the Illuminations because it was a nightmare travelling north to south or south to north.
“These days you can go up and down without too much trouble.”
Baker said he has spoken to hoteliers, who were not named but have complained of being “not busy” at a time they believe they should be.
He said: “I’m just wondering if we should be looking at the cost of the Illuminations and whether it would be better to go back to having a break at some point for three or four weeks, or maybe just having the Illuminations on at the weekend.”
Town hall bosses, however, said keeping the Lights on over the festive period has helped attract seven million winter visitors.
“While other tourist towns are shutting down, we are getting going again with the Illuminations,” council leader Lynn Williams said previously.
Cllr Baker told The Blackpool Lead his concerns remain, saying: “I feel that the extended period just dilutes what we had before Covid.
“This view is supported by both the larger and smaller hoteliers who are having to staff their business continuously, where previously there was a break before the Christmas period.”
Claire Smith, who runs the Number One South Beach hotel and is president of Stay Blackpool, the trade association for holiday accommodation on the Fylde coast, argued, however, that hotels can simply choose to shut down temporarily rather than remain open past the Lights’ traditional closing date.
Describing the two-month extension as a “brilliant idea”, Smith also hailed the seafront Christmas By The Sea festival, which was launched after the Covid-related lockdowns to boost local businesses.
“It’s the most wonderful idea,” she told The Blackpool Lead. “They have done a great job.
“If the Illuminations are on and we have Christmas By The Sea, it gives us a really good out-of-season option.”
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