How to spend a £20m pot of money in Grange Park
It should be residents who ultimately decide the best place to spend the money, argues one community development manager about the Pride in Place fund
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
The announcement of the Pride in Place fund - a chunk of money to help selected communities rebuild pride in their local area - should mean improvements for Grange Park and part of Layton.
But now there are calls for those whose areas are most in need of improvement to be meaningfully invited around the table to discuss how that money - amounting to £20m over ten years - will be spent.
We went down to @TheGrange community café the day after the announcement was made to speak with those who use the facility - but also to gauge the political mood.
By way of a reminder, you can read our piece on Grange Park through the years here and our recent investigation into child poverty in Blackpool here.
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Blackpool briefing
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🔨 Blackpool has come second in an unwanted league table – for the city or large town with the biggest number of unsightly eyesore buildings. New data shows the UK cities issuing the most Section 215 Notices since 2020, highlighting the worst hotspots for neglected commercial buildings. The resort is second only to London in the new study, with run down and derelict commercial properties bringing the town down, in the town centre, and from North Shore to south Shore. But Blackpool Council says it has the issue in its sights and is working to deal with it.
How to spend a £20m pot of money in Grange Park
By Michael Holmes
On an autumnal, drizzly morning, Dinmore Avenue in Blackpool’s Grange Park estate is quiet, save for a couple cleaning a piece of furniture in their front garden and workmen replacing windows next door.
But @TheGrange community centre nearby is a hive of activity.
Its theatre is hosting a session on spotting the signs of cuckooing - when vulnerable people have their homes taken over by gangs for nefarious reasons.
The cold, mist-like rain is being braved by people in the garden, a source of food for the café, which sells full English breakfasts for a subsidised price of £3.50.
A Job Centre worker types away at a laptop, ready to help anyone popping over with a query about their benefits.
And Mike Coole, community development manager, sits at a table sipping from a can of Diet Coke as he talks to The Blackpool Lead about £20m.
That is the sum being promised over the next decade to Grange Park and parts of Layton as part of the Government’s Pride In Place scheme.
Mike talks candidly less than a day after accepting a place on a new board of community leaders that will be tasked with allocating the money.
And he insists it should be residents - and not those with “big dick energy” who simply talk the loudest - who should ultimately decide where the cash would be best spent.
“In my personal opinion, I really want to get the community’s voice heard on how this money should be being spent,” he says.
“Let’s get the real community voices heard so the money can be spent in the way that the community wants it to be spent.”
Sat below red, white and blue bunting and against a backdrop of even more colourful artwork, Mike admits there are other areas of Blackpool also in dire need of more funding, including parts of Central Drive in central Blackpool, Claremont in North Shore and at the top end of Lytham Road in South Shore.
But he has also seen first-hand the difference that extra help has already made in Grange Park, which remains a hub of concentrated poverty.
Should @TheGrange’s loss-making cafe close, for example, hundreds of people would go hungry.
Mike accepts the estate as a whole falls short of utopia, despite the best efforts of many over the past 20 years.
“We could use the money to make it look better,” he says, telling of landlords renting out below-par homes and some “shocking” alleyways.
While the £20m has to be spent in the next 10 years, Mike argues for a proper consultation first, saying: “Let’s not rush. Let’s talk to people about where the money is going to be spent.”
He reserves praise for the Grange Park community for its sense of togetherness, bolstered, he feels, by the cost-of-living crisis and Covid pandemic, although he agrees that, like most places, it has its share of troublemakers.
The estate has “changed” in recent years but mostly for the better, he adds.
Retiree Sheila Underwood, 84, who has lived in Grange Park since she was 11, moving from nearby Layton, disagrees, saying anti-social behaviour remains rife.
A popular figure referred to as the “Duchess of The Grange” by Mike, Sheila maintains a pleasant, smiley demeanour while offering her own, critical assessment of the area.
Police are a regular sight at nearby new-build houses, she says, describing the area as an “estate within an estate”.
The local shop is a “bit on the pricey side” and has become known locally as “Harrods”, she adds.
And, except for @TheGrange, there’s a lack of social spaces.
“We had three pubs once,” she recalls. “You don’t always want to get a taxi to town.”
Before she spoke to The Blackpool Lead, Sheila hadn’t heard of the funding, some of which she hopes will be used to help pensioners heat their homes during the winter.
But the promise of cash won’t persuade her to vote for Sir Keir Starmer’s party at the next general election.
She says: “I think everybody is unhappy now. My dad was a big Labour man. I sort of followed on. I don’t think I will vote for anybody next time.
“They are all the same. They promise you something to get in, and once they get in, it’s a different story.”
Her friend George Thompson, 59, who lives in Bardsway Avenue, Layton, in the same house he was born in, feels the same.
“I have been Labour all my life. My dad was. All my family was except for my mum, who was Conservative,” he says.
“I voted Labour - I wish I hadn’t voted five or six weeks later when they stopped the winter fuel allowance.
“My dad would have been turning in his grave.
“Come the next election, I would not vote for any of them.”
But what if the Pride In Place cash makes a difference to their lives?
George, who hopes a community centre like @TheGrange can be opened in Layton, says he could be persuaded to trust Labour again - if, and “it’s a big if”, changes happen.
But Sheila is less sure, saying: “I think it’s too late, personally.”
Immigration is also an issue for her.
“All the talk about stopping the boats and they are still getting as many, if not more,” she says.
“I fear for my great-grandchildren, and I have four of them.
“I just wonder what’s going to happen.”
(More than 33,500 people had crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats in the year to September 29, official figures show. That is 721 more than at the same point in 2022, a record year for crossings.)
One thing is for sure for George and Sheila, however, and that’s that they won’t be voting for Reform.
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