Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
The work of beach patrol staff in Blackpool is clearly very important - and safe use of beaches needs to be promoted.
But staff have been accused of overstepping the mark in using non-existent legal powers to move families away from the beach in ‘low-risk’ situations.
When confronted with this, we asked Blackpool Council if staff would be reminded that they do not have these legal powers.
We didn’t get answer to that question.
Blackpool briefing
📊 Protestors gathered on Friday (6 November) to raise their concerns over the Silicon Sands data centre scheme.
The campaigners say that while the advantages of the plans have so far been publicly highlighted, there have been no discussions about any potential drawbacks that may be entailed.
The ‘Stop Silicon Sands’ group says there are concerns that the site could potentially generate significant levels of light, noise and waste pollution which could cause damage to the environment for both residents and wildlife – and also drain resources such as water and electricity.
Silicon Sands, anticipated to open within the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone later next year, has been hailed by Blackpool Council as a ‘game changer’ which will attract top companies and much-needed high quality jobs to the town.
🏠 The property price cap in Blackpool for the Your First Home scheme has been revealed.
The new programme is aimed at giving thousands in England a helping hand on to the property ladder, with those eligible able to buy a new-build using a deposit of at least 2.5% of the property price, a repayment mortgage from a participating bank and a government equity loan worth 20% of the purchase price, interest-free for five years.
The cap in Blackpool for the scheme, which is expected to open for applications in February, is £235,000.
Some parts of the country have caps as high as £650,000, with the lowest in North Lincolnshire at £215,000.
🩺 Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s maternity services are continuing to improve after being rated as ‘requires improvement’ by inspectors last year, a report says.
Back in August 2025, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) handed out the rating of the services at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, following an inspection in March.
The CQC team visited the maternity unit, which delivers approximately 3,000 babies every year, to follow up on concerns raised at a previous inspection.
Among the chief issues found in March last year were challenges over staffing, with a lack of consultant availability causing delays in women having high-risk pregnancies and a worrying shortage of midwives, with specialist midwives frequently being redeployed to cover general absences, neglecting community care and home births.
More than a year after being handed the rating, Cat Parkinson, Head of Midwifery and Neonates (Maternity Services) at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Trust, has highlighted ongoing improvements in a new report.
This will be looked at members of Blackpool Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee meeting on November 12.
Patrol workers ordering families off Blackpool beaches - despite no legal powers to enforce it
By Michael Holmes
Beach patrol workers in Blackpool have been accused of ordering families off the sand - despite town hall bosses admitting they have no legal power to do so.
Hotelier Brendan O’Rourke claims staff have been telling parents and children building sandcastles in perfectly safe conditions that the beach is “closed” and they must leave.
But now, after a freedom of information battle, the council has conceded that its beach patrol advice is not legally enforceable, raising questions about how patrol staff are communicating safety warnings to visitors.
Deputy council leader and climate change boss Jane Hugo told The Blackpool Lead: “There are occasions when our team will advise people to leave certain areas of the beach because conditions could put them at risk.
“This is not advice given unnecessarily, but to prevent people from finding themselves in potentially dangerous or life-threatening situations.
“This advice is advisory rather than legally enforceable. However, that does not make the risks any less serious, or the importance of following that advice any less significant.”
O’Rourke, who runs holiday apartments on the Promenade in North Shore, used freedom of information legislation to ask the local authority what legal power it had to shut the beach.
The council responded by citing two laws, claiming that “section 231 of the Public Health Act 1936 … enables local authorities to regulate public bathing or restrict bathing where warning is given that conditions are dangerous”, with “further powers” under “section 82 of the Public Health Amendment Act 1907”.
But it backtracked after being challenged by O’Rourke, who said the decades-old legislation has not been brought in locally and largely refers to Victorian bathing machines.