This is why the junction of Hornby Road and Regent Road was closed earlier this week

A run-down hotel with a reputation for being a ‘drugs den’ forced a road closure amid fears it could collapse
The building on Hornby RoadThe building on Hornby Road
The building on Hornby Road

The road around the boarded-up building at the junction of Hornby Road and Regent Road was closed to traffic and passers-by by Blackpool Council on Wednesday.

It was reopened later that day following an engineering report.

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Locals say the building has harboured a reputation as a ‘drugs den’ for years.

The building on Hornby RoadThe building on Hornby Road
The building on Hornby Road

Steve Banner, 42, of Charnley Road, said: “It’s got a bit of a reputation, it always has done. It has always been a drugs den. We have always seen drug dealers going back and forwards. It’s been going on for years. The house being closed down doesn’t surprise me. The whole top end looks like it’s going to fall off at any moment.”

Phil Clarkson, 68, of Regent Road, said: “It used to be home to drug addicts a few years ago. That’s when it closed down, I think. There have been loads of squatters in.

“For as long as I have been here there have been problems with drugs. People used to come fighting and smashing the windows in.”

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The building, which used to be holiday flats, has been earmarked for demolition according to a new planning application submitted to the council.

The plans call for the building and neighbouring Seaton Hotel to be knocked down and replaced with a pay and display car park.

But Carol Johnston, 42, from Reads Avenue, said: “It’s not bad enough to knock it down. If it was a lot worse then I would say knock it down, but it just needs a make-over. Why have another car park? We need all the properties we can get.

“Demolition is a bit extreme. If it was falling down then fair enough, but it’s not that bad.”

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