Mould issues in homes now targeted for demolition made worse by council-led project
The row of the Blackpool Central regeneration project continues at pace
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
The row over the regeneration of Blackpool Central continues. The council insists its plan to demolish homes and for others to be bought is the only way it can effectively regenerate the area and ensure substantially improved living conditions for whoever makes it their home.
Campaigners and residents say that a community is being displaced and the actual people living in the area are not being protected by the project.
For today’s newsletter, it’s back to 2012 when work undertaken on the properties in a project led by Blackpool Council contributed to the mould which led to many of them being described as in poor condition.
The council maintains the condition of the properties is not the sole or main motivating factor behind its plans - and that’s why simply renovating the homes would not be enough.
A public meeting is due to take place on Thursday (5 March) which will be led by Cllr Lynn Williams. It is at 6pm at Ibbison Court Community Centre.
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Blackpool briefing
🚧 Blackpool residents say the town’s roads are the ‘number one’ issue they want to raise with the council, with a record number of complaints about potholes in the last three years. In her budget speech last week, Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, acknowledged the issue and pledged a further £3.5 million for a new programme of works. Council figures show that in 2025, the public flagged up 502 complaints, and in 2024 there were 736, more than twice the average number since 2012, while there were 570 in 2023. The total number of complaints for that period was 1,808, compared with 1,070 reports from 2020 to 2022. However, there were fewer potholes fixed in these last three years – 8,139 compared to 9,123 over the previous three years, despite nearly twice the number of complaints.
🗳️ Fylde MP Andrew Snowden has - again - raised fears that taxpayers could be forced to pick up the bill for Blackpool Council’s £500 million debt after local authorities merge. Conservative MP Snowden confronted Local Government Minister Alison McGovern directly in Parliament, demanding to know whether the Government expects Fylde and Wyre residents to shoulder the financial burden. However, his comments were blasted by Cllr Lynn Williams, the leader of Blackpool Council, who said many of her council’s financial challenges could be laid at the door of previous Conservative governments who implemented savage funding cutbacks to the council over several years. Labour ministers are pressing ahead with the plans to abolish Lancashire’s existing councils to form new merged authorities.
🤝🏻 The chairman who will lead a £20m Government-backed community project for Grange Park and Layton has now been named. Sarah Lindsay will oversee the area’s Pride in Place project, which will see £2 million invested each year for the next decade to support local projects, improve community facilities and strengthen the area for future generations. Sarah was selected following a recruitment process that attracted a strong field of candidates from across the Grange Park and Layton communities. Similar Pride in Place schemes have been set up for communities across the country deemed to be “overlooked” – other Fylde coast projects include the one at Fleetwood. Blackpool South MP Chris Webb, who was on the Layton and Grange Park interview panel, welcomed the appointment and said all applicants brought valuable experience and insight. He said many are expected to play a role in the programme as it develops.
Mould issues in homes now targeted for demolition made worse by council-led project
By Luke Beardsworth
Mould issues in homes that are being targeted for demolition and regeneration by Blackpool Council were likely made worse by a council-led project, The Blackpool Lead can reveal.
The plans for Blackpool Central ultimately mean that around 400 properties - approximately 300 of which are estimated to be residential - will be replaced with 230 new homes.
But the project has been hit by a number of criticisms by some residents, and campaigners, who say the council’s failure to guarantee a right to return is tantamount to displacing a population.
One of the reasons - though Blackpool Council says not the main reason - the homes are being targeted is due to their poor condition.
Starting from 2012, around 473 mainly privately-owned homes around Central Drive, Ashton Road, Park Road and Ribble Road were selected to receive external wall insulation (EWI) on the basis of high levels of deprivation in the area.
The purpose of the scheme, which was funded by government Community Energy Saving Programme grants and carried out by external contractors, was to improve insulation and comfort levels - as well as to protect the homes from damage related to being close to the sea. The first stages of the project were led by Blackpool Council, according to an English Heritage Report from 2014.
However, that same report confirmed that damp was found in a number of these properties within 12 months of the installation of EWI - and in some cases substantially sooner. In each instance, damp was causing mould beneath large bay windows in the properties.
Staff changes throughout the project meant that lessons were rarely learned along the way, the report says. The site manager for the project, for example, changed six times during installation and there were warnings of ‘different standards on different buildings’.
This comes against a backdrop of wider issues with botched insulation under government schemes that have exacerbated damp problems.
