The right to a home vs investment in the battle for Blackpool's Multiversity site
A decision on whether the council can use CPOs with the remaining properties is expected early 2025
Blackpool’s £65m multiversity development is described as being a key part of the town’s regeneration plans. Designed to offer a “a world class learning facility”, the plan aims to attract more students, improve prospects for locals and create better links with businesses.
It is the latest phase in major plans to bring investment and employment opportunities to Blackpool, which also include the building of Sainsbury’s and Bickerstaffe House, which houses the council, the tramway extension and Holiday Inn, and the redevelopment of The Hop Inn, now a dental practice along with the building of DWP offices next door. and the building next door of new offices, due to open in March, for the Department of Work and Pensions.
To enable those ambitious plans, homes and businesses living on a parcel of land between Cookson Street, Milbourne Street, George Street and Grosvenor Street, right next to the town centre and within the Talbot Gateway development area, will be demolished.
Thanks to a £9m pot of Government funding, offers have been made for all the affected properties but for those where no sale is agreed, Blackpool Council may be able to force their sales.
Among those who have tried to object are out of work engineer Robert Whyte, who has volunteered to assist his neighbours in the process, spending his time poring over documents and liaising with the council.
Earlier this year, he told The Blackpool Lead he had lived in the George Street home his entire life and did not disagree with the proposed development, but felt there were alternative locations to consider.
Nearby, Robert Farrell owns multiple properties which he rents out to tenants who are mostly aged over 50. One of those, pensioner Peter Harris, lives with COPD, requires an oxygen tank at all times and fears he cannot find any suitable other property.
If no sales can be agreed, the council wants to use Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) to complete the deals and allow the plans to progress.
In recent weeks, a public inquiry has taken place at the Imperial Hotel on the Promenade to decide whether that should be allowed. The Blackpool Lead was the only outlet which had a reporter attend every day of the hearings.
Walking around the affected area, the most common sight is windows and doors which have been boarded up with either sheets of metal or wood. Many of the homes on these roads have crumbling facades, several have litter dumped outside, few still have people living inside.
For those people who are still here, life must go on and Christmas decorations can be seen in homes bookended by others which have been sealed up. Trees, lights and window stickers are displayed in what will likely be the last Christmas celebrated there. If everything progresses as expected, all those memories will soon be lost in the rubble
While there are a couple of businesses still in operation - namely the Premier Store and African Caribbean supermarket - other empty units only show what came before. One lost sign proclaims offer unbeatable fire extinguisher prices but inside is nothing more than a pile of unopened letters. Across the road, a closed down mortgage office feels almost cruelly ironic.
Ultimately, to walk around here is to be greeted by a sense of loss and inevitability. These houses, some of which date back to the 1840s, will surely not be revived under any circumstance. The wheels are already well in motion and the journey too far along.
That sense of inevitability could be felt throughout the inquiry, which was originally scheduled to run for eight days but instead fit into four.
Each day, almost a dozen officials, witnesses and advisors sat on one side of the room, resulting in an intimidating presence for the objectors who did turn up. With hundreds of pages of reports and evidence already submitted to Robert Ware, the inquiry’s chair, there was a sense of it being a foregone conclusion from the outset. That’s not to suggest anything in any way untoward or improper, simply that the task facing any objector was extremely difficult.
During the two sitting days of the first week, Mr Whyte assumed his unofficial role of community spokesperson as he asked questions of the experts who came forward to speak on behalf of the plan and acted as a liaison for others who had been unable to attend.
Among his concerns were whether an alternative site could be found, with the council’s witnesses explaining why a town centre location was needed, the benefits of improved transport links, and why alternative suggestions had been ruled to be unviable.
Perhaps the most decisive answer came in the closing statement of Sarah Reid, the KC representing the council throughout the process.
She said: “The total £65m funding package available to bring the development forward is available for this site and no other, and this is the only site with planning permission for the development proposed.
“There is no other scheme or alternative proposals on the table promoted by anyone that could deliver the significant social, economic and environmental benefits of this scheme.”
The need for regeneration was laid bare by Growth and Prosperity Programme Director Nick Gerrard who highlighted desperate statistics about Blackpool’s deprivation, poverty, health, education and employment levels which all fall well behind the national averages. Also coming forward to speak was Blackpool & the Fylde College Chief Operating Officer Alistair Mulvey who explained why the new location was needed and how transformative the development could be.
Later on, the authority’s Head of Investment Talha Yakub discussed the negotiations process and the extensive efforts made to support residents, including paying for agents to represent them, arranging face to face sessions with an independent surveyor, and helping with efforts to find alternative accommodation.
Explaining the lengths gone to ensure proper negotiations, Mr Yakub said the council had employed tracing agents to find the owner of a plot of land on the site who was eventually traced to the Netherlands.
By the time the second week began, Mr Whyte had agreed his property sale and withdrawn his objection, leaving just six people still opposing the plan. The council remains optimistic deals can be reached without the need for any CPO to actually be forced through.
Among those, Mr Farrell returned for the final two days, the only objector to do so. Speaking to The Blackpool Lead in the first week, he explained his concern was for the tenants who he feared would be left with no suitable alternative location. He also objected to one term which had been used to describe landlords or poor quality properties.
“How can they say slum landlords? I’ve been looking after my tenants for 30 years, I help them out. I’ve not increased the rent for years. I’m not greedy. I’m not a slum landlord.”
Although two days of the second week had been earmarked for objectors to come forward and speak, ultimately none did.
Mr Farrell did come forward to speak, but only seconds after Mr Ware closed the inquiry. Explaining his reticence up to this point, he said he had suffered a brain haemorrhage 15 years earlier and still dealt with the effects of this. He explained it affected his confidence and thinking and that he had only felt able to speak up at this stage.
But Mr Ware said that numerous opportunities and invitations had been made available throughout the process and that it was not possible to allow his intervention after the closing statement had been prepared and delivered to cover the evidence discussed. With seemingly genuine regret, he said it could not be allowed.
In that closing statement, Ms Reid concluded: “It is the council’s case that it is clear that the Multiversity scheme will contribute to achieving the promotion and improvement of the economic, social and environmental well – being of the area, and is critical to the regeneration of the town.
“The council has carefully taken into account the impact on those affected and sought to mitigate this wherever possible. However, compulsory purchase is necessary and proportionate as a measure of last resort to assemble the land required to deliver this vital scheme.”
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