Blackpool roadworks furore causes quite a stir on social media

Blackpool North’s Tory MP Paul Maynard said the timing of works which saw the Prom closed and temporary lights erected on Devonshire Road “once again demonstrates how our local authority makes decisions which place the needs of visitors above those of residents.”

“Astounded” Blackpool Council’s roads boss Coun Fred Jackson hit back at the claims, saying visitors and residents are treated “the same” and said he thought “the Conservatives in Blackpool have always portrayed themselves as friends of the tourism industry”.

Commuters were stuck in long queues earlier this week when Network Rail set up temporary lights on Devonshire Road during rush hour to help remove equipment.

But council staff stepped in when the problems arose and the lights have been switched off whenever possible since.

Here’s your views...

Blackpool wouldn’t have any residents if it didn’t have visitors.

Blackpool exists because of visitors.

Take the visitors away and you would be left with a massively depleted economy that could not sustain the current population.

If you live and work here, be glad your council gives visitors priority because if it fails to do that, it also fails you.

Julie Clarke

And what sustains Blackpool when no one is here? Us.

We get no perks.

Fay Mac

I agree the tramway extension decision was a bad decision.

It is a shame more people didn’t express a view on this during the consultation period.

Not enough people listened when the taxi drivers tried to warn that 18 months of construction work in the town centre would cause chaos.

Too many people said that greedy taxi drivers didn’t want competition from trams.

Having said that I think Network Rail should take some of the blame for the current chaos.

Having accumulated 290,000 tons of landfill during the rail work, this needs to be moved.

I am told this has moved twice recently.

Bill Lewtas

Without the tourists 70 per cent or more of this town would be out of a job so not a fair call, the council do though need to think more of their residents and their everyday lives, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that closing major links from one side of Blackpool to the other is going to cause havoc and to close them at the same time is beyond stupidity.

Mandy Waters

You have to ask yourself why 70 per cent of jobs in Blackpool rely on tourists, bad council decisions over the years have led to our once thriving manufacturing/ production and warehouse jobs leaving for other towns and cities.

Lee Ward

We used to have Duples Coach Builders, the exhaust manufacturer on Squires Gate both big employers as well as others, and of course the airport which is now defunked.

This and previous councils have failed. The town cannot just rely on tourism.

Mike Todd

Playing politics.

This – the biggest change in infrastructure since Victorian times IS causing chaos but this is the physical, short term price of improving our town.

Longer journeys are usually alleviated by swearing and, er ..... better personal planning?

Chris Westhead

Tory lecturing on caring...that’s a laugh

Mark Richardson

After his involvement in the trains debacle as well.

How much did he care about anyone, be it visitor or local, when he was transport minister?

Claire Louise Francis

Sadly this is a reality, if you take a walk around tourist areas money has been spent on new lighting pavements roads street furniture.

Residential areas have nothing spent on them.

I know pavements in my road are like a patchwork quilt of flagstones.

The council don’t even send gritters round anymore.

It’s all about the tourists and this needs to change.

Julian Hartley

Blackpool Council has destroyed the town as a place to live and raise a family.

Everything is geared towards tourism while the suburbs crumble through neglect.

Tony Bond

Blackpool Council see tourism as the panacea to all of Blackpool’s problems when tourism is the problem.

It is a drain on public services, Millions spent on harebrained schemes.

Billy Blackpool

Blackpool has been totally mismanaged by both parties over the years.

Amanda Carol

My biggest bugbear is going past where Devonshire Road hospital used to be and looking at a £400k car park for council workers that no one uses.

Peter Allen Rogers