Disabled Blackpool pensioner fears she will die before she gets her sea view
Retired hotelier Doreen Jackson, 86, has been told the solid wooden fencing opposite her ground floor flat will be there for at least another four years - despite sitting empty
A disabled pensioner fears she will die before she gets to enjoy the sea view from her Promenade home - because of large blue hoardings that have been there for a decade.
Retired hotelier Doreen Jackson, 86, has been told the solid wooden fencing opposite her ground floor flat on Queen’s Promenade, opposite the Little Bispham tram stop, will be there for at least another four years, despite the council car park-cum-compound it surrounds currently sitting empty.
She told The Blackpool Lead: “It’s soul destroying, looking at it. I will be dead before I even get to see the sea.”
Mrs Jackson, a widow originally from Leeds, used to live in a third-floor flat in nearby Haddon Court and would enjoy the western sunsets from her balcony with a glass of wine.
After moving to her rented home on Queen’s Promenade several years ago, she hoped her view of the hoardings, which have been there since 2014, would be short lived.
But they have continued to block the view for dozens of residents living opposite.
Mrs Jackson’s mood hit rock bottom four years ago when she had her leg amputated - after she cut her toe and developed a severe infection - and was left housebound.
“I was on a waiting list for a ramp and could not get around easily,” she said from her home recently as the sun sank slowly, albeit out of sight, below the horizon.
“I only had the living room and bedroom for around a year. There were some days when I thought, ‘What’s the point? Why am I even here?
“My health suffered terribly because I just sat here and looked behind me there and that (the hoardings) was all I saw. I couldn’t see anything else. I didn’t see many people, I couldn’t get out and it has really affected me.”
Mrs Jackson said she has always wanted to live beside the sea and, despite moving into her spacious home after the hoarding had already been put up, “never expected it to be here this long”.
Earlier this year, the perimeter fence, which Mrs Jackson said was falling into a state of disrepair, was taken down.
Her joy, however, was short-lived - with replacement hoarding soon erected.
Mrs Jackson, who has four grown-up daughters, 16 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, said she called infrastructure firm Balfour Beatty and was told “it looks like it will be (up for) another four years”.
She added: “I said, ‘I will be 90 then, I don’t think I’ll be around’. I just felt down. When it came down last time, before they put new hoardings up, I was elated.
“I think it should be taken down. We should be able to see the sea. We have a right to look out there and see the sea.
“They don’t seem to want to listen to people like us and we don’t seem to have a voice.”
Mrs Jackson said the hoarding once protected machinery used to improve the area’s sea defences but it was all moved to Fleetwood earlier this year.
Last week, Blackpool Council said an £11m plan to address beach levels at Anchorsholme have been given the go ahead.
The authority said the work is necessary to protect homes and halt coastal erosion - but it means the compound will be needed.
Leon Davy from the Poverty Truth Network spoke to residents living near the hoarding and said “they shared that when they came here many years ago, that some of the estate agents suggested (the hoarding) would come down within three or four months”.
He said: “It hasn’t. And it’s been there ever since.”
Davey, pledging to get the fencing removed “as soon as possible”, added: “It’s serving no purpose at all.”
Balfour Beatty did not respond to a request for comment.
A council spokesperson said: “The coastal protection works at Anchorsholme are vitally important in preventing coastal erosion and the risk of flooding. We know it must be frustrating for residents to have a view of the compound from their properties but it is sited in the only viable location.”
Labour MP Lorraine Beavers, who won her seat at the recent general election, said: “I was aware of these hoardings but have not been contacted by any residents directly on this matter.
“My understanding at this time is that the hoardings are in place as part of planned work on the sea defences, which failed a few years ago and need upgrading.
“I will speak to Balfour Beatty and Blackpool Council to get an update. I will also contact Doreen directly to discuss her concerns.”
Conservative ward councillor Julie Sloman said the hoarding was a “consistent issue for some years prior” to her election in 2021 and said the area’s previous councillors, Maxine and Peter Callow, “also had issues with the compound”.
She said: “I have liaised with the council officers and the residents previously because of the run-down state of the hoardings, resulting in them being in part replaced and painted.
“I quite agree that it is unfair for the residents to be inconvenienced in this way and it troubles me that they have purchased their homes in part because of the location and that their properties are almost blighted by the ongoing use of the hoardings and the compound.”
Cllr Sloman said she lives beside Anchorsholme Park and so can emphasise with residents living opposite the Balfour Beatty compound, saying “the work that went on here for some years was inconvenient and unsightly - although we do now reap the rewards”.
She added: “I have asked for the residents to be kept up to speed via letters in terms of when the hoardings were going to be removed as initially they were only there to accommodate the work going on around that initial phase of sea defence work at Anchorsholme, which of course borders Norbreck. And, as you point out, the compound is empty.
“I understand there is going to be further significant work undertaken to protect the coastline and renew the sea defences between Norbreck and Bispham, which is extremely important to us all. It may well be that the compound will be integral to that work.”
Funding for the original Anchorsholme coast protection scheme was approved in 2013.
During construction there was a requirement for additional works to the headland area and further approval was given by the Environment Agency in 2016.
After a storm in 2017, a defect was identified which the contractor agreed to address, at their expense, by providing rock armour along the revetment wall, the council said.
It said in a press release: “Over the last two years, exploratory works have been carried out to inform the outline business case for coast protection and beach management along the coastline.
“These investigations have identified accelerated beach lowering in Anchorsholme. In order to retain the beach and sand, it is proposed that groynes are installed during the construction period for the rock armour works to the revetment wall.
“The groynes will act as headlands to trap and retain natural onshore supply of sand. They will also stabilise and retain upper beach at toe of revetment as well as the immediate foreshore area.”
The town hall’s climate change boss, Cllr Jane Hugo, said: “Over the coming weeks we will be sharing the plans for Anchorsholme with residents, businesses and visitors in a series of public events. Further details will be shared shortly.”