Talbot Road in Blackpool to close AGAIN

Parts of Talbot Road in Blackpool town centre are set to shut again – this time for “remedial works” linked to the controversial £21 million tramway extension.

The news was met with dismay after a previous months-long closure had a major impact on businesses in the road.

The council did not say exactly what the snags are, nor when the closure will happen – though it said “different sections” will be closed “over the period of a single week”.

Repair work has already started in a lay-by outside the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, near to Talbot Square, where the “concrete surface did not meet our specification” and will be re-laid by contractors, the council said.

A spokeswoman said the issues relate to technical standards and will be put right at the expense of the council’s contractor rather than the public purse.

And, with no tram depot to link the tracks to yet, there should be no ultimate delay.

The council has also announced another, scheduled, closure to Talbot Road from May 12.

The road will be closed for approximately five days to allow for "quality and safety checks" to take place.

The tram track is being extended from North Pier to North Station – and will eventually link to a depot that will be build where Wilko is now. Some £16.4m of the £21m cost is from the government. The rest is from the council's coffers.

Big Woody’s skate shop, which was opposite Sacred Heart Church in Talbot Road, was forced to move and lay off two members of staff last year because of the roadworks.

Owner Woody Clayton said he held on in the hopes the work would be finished “by the end of September” but said: “This never happened and the situation went from bad to worse.”

The shop is now on Talbot Road miles away in Layton.