The year in headlines from Multiversity scandal to Metropole whistleblowers
The best of our exclusive, investigative journalism in 2025
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
Today’s issue is again something of a reflective edition as we look back on the exclusive reporting we have carried out in 2025.
We invest in local journalism - particularly investigative journalism - because we believe that its at risk but that every area of the UK deserves to have it.
Stories we reported in 2025 went on to get spotlighted in the national media in ways that they simply wouldn’t have if we hadn’t done in the initial work.
Being properly informed will be a superpower in 2026 as misinformation and AI posts will become a greater concern than they are now.
And we’ll keep doing our best to make that as straightforward as possible for you in Blackpool.
January: Getting under the skin of plans to transform central Blackpool
Ambitious plans to transform swathes of central Blackpool - one of the country’s poorest areas - to tackle poverty and dilapidation have been revealed.
They would take years to pull off, such is the scale of challenge ahead, but the end result will be a “desirable and sustainable neighbourhood that celebrates Blackpool’s unique heritage and setting”, the council’s masterplan promises.
Guesthouses-cum-bedsits and run-down terraced homes are set to be replaced by new, energy-efficient homes and green spaces - which should lead to less crime, healthier residents, less overcrowding in the private rented sector and less homelessness.
February: Blackpool Council was accused of ‘insidious’ tactics to force sale of home before young dad’s death
An inquest opened in February into the death of Blackpool dad-of-four Alistair Taylor.
Alistair, a barber with his own shop on Topping Street, was well-known and liked in the community but he was found dead at his Milbourne Street home at the age of 32 on 4 October, 2024.
Tributes poured in following the news of the death of a young man who was seen as a star of Blackpool Council’s Get Started Programme which helped him establish his business as far back as 2013.
Blackpool Council was, later in 2025, told to learn lessons from its approach to dealing with Alistair and his family as they sought to purchase his home for the Multiversity project.
This was our first report on the evidence that would later be discussed in inquest.
March: Job cuts and rides shelved as Pleasure Beach cites cost-of-living crisis in announcing further losses
Staff cuts and reduced operating hours at Blackpool Pleasure Beach were discussed after the theme park recorded a seven-figure loss last year.
The latest accounts for Blackpool Pleasure Beach Limited were published this week and showed a pre-tax loss of £2.7m in the 2023-24 financial year.
Among the measures being implemented to improve efficiency at the hugely popular attraction are reduced operating hours for individual rides. Visitors to the attraction this weekend, for example, will have seen the much-loved Valhalla ride was only open for three hours.
April: The same excuses in the wait for the end of Jameson Road landfill
“Again the same excuses while we wait for the Environment Agency to do something. Also..the lot of you… you don’t live in it. My eight-year-old child is off school and has missed nearly five weeks since January. She had to go for a blood test today and there are so many people like us.
“And you, not Lorraine but the rest of you, you all sit there and none of you care at all. Profit before people.”
Those were the words of a concerned mother and campaigner at a public meeting at Fleetwood Town Football Club on 3 April. It is a long-running issue, but residents in the town spent Christmas expressing the same concerns they have been doing for the last two years.
May: Bosses at Reform UK’s first pub ‘accidentally’ agreed to host two-day neo-Nazi gig
Bosses at Reform’s first pub - at a former Conservative club in Blackpool - said they only accidentally agreed to host a two-day neo-Nazi gig.
Meanwhile, one of The Talbot’s co-owners has also defended having a house in Spain - despite his venue in Milbourne Street in the town centre, which has been painted bright blue, displaying the anti-immigration party’s logos outside.
While chiefs at the venue have said “everybody and anyone is welcome” and insist there is “no racism here”, they have also joked about serving “pints of Remainer tears” and the resort’s “best gammon” - an apparent reference to the slur typically used against white, middle-aged men whose politics lean to the right.
June: Inside the deal to return Blackpool Tower to council control
The council’s arms-length tourism company was to launch a review into a number of Merlin-operated resort attractions after taking them over, The Blackpool Lead revealed.
Blackpool Operating Company (Bocl) - which will change its name to Blackpool Tourism - will from August 1 take over the running of the Tower and its attractions, including the Tower Eye, circus, ballroom and Dungeons.
The firm, which already manages the Sandcastle Waterpark and Showtown Museum, will also take over the running of the Madame Tussauds waxwork museum.
July: The Metropole: Closer to a prison than a holiday for asylum seekers
Asylum seekers in Blackpool are being ‘destroyed’ by the conditions they face in a historic, but neglected, hotel.
That is the verdict from whistleblower Samantha Arden, who worked in the hotel as a housing officer for Serco until June, who says that the families are surviving in rot and neglect.
Arden, 46, from Thornton-Cleveleys told The Blackpool Lead that while there are behavioural issues within the hotel - the majority were ‘lovely people’ looking for a better life and fleeing challenging circumstances.
August: Blackpool Council told it must improve adult social care in damning new report
Blackpool Council has been rated ‘inadequate’ over its responsibilities to ensure the town’s most vulnerable people have access to adult social care and support.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), whose inspectors compiled the report, looked at nine areas of the council’s work in adult social care and handed the authority low scores in most areas.
As a result of the low overall rating, the CQC has highlighted shortcomings to the Government, flagging up which areas need to be improved and expecting this to be done quickly.
September: Reform UK at risk of being home for Tory rejects
A Reform councillor in Blackpool slammed his own party for ‘importing more Tories’ and suggested the party may be turning into something he did not sign up for.
In a now deleted post, he said: “Nobody really wanted Labour, they just didn’t want the Tories.”
O’Neill, who advocates for fracking on the Fylde Coast, told The Blackpool Lead that he deleted the post because he felt it was ill-timed during the national Reform UK conference.
October: ‘Cruel’ and ‘inhumane’ system behind forced purchase of Alistair Taylor’s house slammed
Blackpool Council needs to take greater ‘accountability’ for its role in the death of a father-of-four.
That’s the conclusion of Blackpool Council’s own Conservative leader of the opposition, Cllr Paul Galley, who slammed the authority for its reluctance to issue an apology to Alistair Taylor’s family.
An inquest earlier in October found that the enforced sale of Alistair’s home, to facilitate the development of the Multiversity site, was a contributing factor in the 34-year-old’s decision to end his life.
November: Palestinian family-of-seven booted from Metropole day after raising concerns over condition of hotel
A family of refugees from Palestine were thrown out of the Metropole with two hours’ notice the day after they spoke to journalists about the conditions in the hotel, The Blackpool Lead revealed.
The mother and father of a family-of-seven from Palestine, who arrived in Blackpool earlier this year, spoke with ITV News to raise concerns about the conditions within the Metropole, which has been used to house asylum seekers since 2021.
The family, from Palestine, believe they are being punished for speaking to the media. Serco denied this and said the family was moved after concerns over their behaviour.
December: A shower of poo is still pumped into Blackpool sea despite water bills surging
Raw sewage continues to be routinely pumped into the sea at Blackpool - with holidaymakers and locals likely to again be warned not to enter the dangerously polluted water.
Since the start of November, there have been at least 157 releases of human faeces and other sewage from United Utilities’ overflow pipe at Anchorsholme, lasting a total of 3,756 minutes, and 98 from its pipe at Manchester Square, lasting 6,198 minutes, according to data collated by the Surfers Against Sewage campaign group.
From 3am on November 14 to 1am on November 16 alone, sewage was dumped into the sea for 22 hours and 11 minutes, with United Utilities failing - when asked - to explain why.