Furious residents protest at Blackpool Town Hall over controversial plans to demolish 300 homes
Unhappy residents from Blackpool’s Revoe area have mounted a placard-waving protest over controversial plans to demolish their homes as part of a regeneration project.
Protestors gathered outside Blackpool Town Hall, in Talbot Square, to make their feelings known to Blackpool Council just as a planning meeting was due to take place.
Blackpool Council says the proposed Central Housing Regeneration project will help eradicate poor housing in one of the town’s most deprived areas. The council says residents will be able to move into modern airy homes with more greenery after around 300 homes on several streets off Central Drive will be bulldozed.
But many residents are furious about the plans. They say they weren’t properly consulted and feel they are being forced out of their homes against their will. And there are concerns that there will be fewer new homes built than the ones demolished.
‘The council aren’t listening’
A member of the Acorn Community Union, which is supporting the residents, said: “At a time when there is a big waiting list for social housing, this is not the time to be knocking down 300 houses and replacing them with less.”
Resident Anna Penfold said: “The council aren’t listening so we will have to keep making statements like his until they do.”
The planning meeting at which the protestors gathered did not involve the Revoe proposals, with the session touching on other planning matters, including plans for the Upside Down attraction near South Pier, and the latest expansion plans for Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone.
However, during the meeting, a number of protestors who had managed to gain access to proceedings, vocally raised their concerns to councillors, causing the meeting to be adjourned.
‘£90m grant’
The council is looking to bulldoze around 300 homes on several streets off Central Drive and replace them with modern housing, using a £90m grant previously awarded by former Conservative minister Michael Gove as part of the then government’s Homes England agenda.
Cllr Lynn Williams, leader of Blackpool Council, said at a stormy public meeting earlier this month: “I understand it is difficult and worrying. These are your homes. But we have to be honest about this area. Central Drive is one of the most densely populated areas outside London.
“What concerns me is our young people here. Children here face greater challenges than in other areas – and that is not fair.”
Sense of community
While the council says the area suffers from issues of anti-social behaviour, residents say Revoe has a genuine sense of community which is in danger of being destroyed. Earlier this month, Blackpool Council invited residents, stakeholders and businesses to take part in a new consultation on the proposed Central Housing Regeneration Area Framework.
At one point in the meeting, one resident staged an on-the-spot poll asking for a show of hands of people in the room who opposed the project and wanted to keep their homes. The response was overwhelming as hands went up in the air.
Residents voiced their concerns that the amount of money they would be offered for their homes would leave them seriously out of pocket alongside worries over what sort of homes they would be moved to.
One woman said: “You’re destroying this community. You say no plans are going through yet we’re already seeing houses being boarded up.”
Another bone of contention was whether the council would implement a compulsory purchase order on homes. Residents were told there was currently no CPO. But when one resident asked ‘So I can stay in my house?’, they were told the council may apply for a CPO.