Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
People living in the shadow of the Jameson Road landfill would be forgiven for not getting their hopes up, but the slow mechanisms that are in theory designed to look after residents are finally coughing into action.
First, Wyre Council served Transwaste with an order demanding they start to seriously resolve the issue – something people had been asking after for well over a year.
And now, The Environment Agency has said, for the first time, that they are seriously exploring whether closing the site is the best option.
🩺 A nurse who provides treatment and support for homeless people in Blackpool says he wants to help break the cycle which stops them getting a place to live. Tony Norman, 55, who works for a Fylde coast health care provider, has seen all too often the way that living on the streets can have a devastating effect on people’s health. In his job he is able to ensure homeless patients, some of whom are very vulnerable with complex issues, can get to see a GP and he personally helps with issues such as wound care. He says the most frustrating thing he sees is the difficulty many people on the streets have in being able to get a place to live, despite help for homeless people being available via various organisations in Blackpool. If they do not meet the criteria, he says some homeless people fall between the cracks and can’t get a flat, condemned to not having their own space where they can shut the door and feel safe. He says even taking medication is hard on the street because it can be lost or stolen. Now Tony, supported by a small number of work colleagues, is on a personal mission and is trying to raise funds to buy a property which he hopes can be the first of several safe spaces for homeless people who otherwise might not get their own place. Anyone wanting to hear more about the scheme or who want to support it can visit the GoFundMe here.
🏠Plans to change the use of a former eight-bedroom hotel into a massive private house have been lodged with Blackpool Council. The former Kings Court Hotel at 34 King Edward Avenue, North Shore, was classed as a small hotel or guesthouse when it was in operation but as a private house there is substantial internal accommodation across three floors. The retrospective planning application seeks to “regularise” the current occupation of the property as a single household. Changing a hotel into a private house or residential property can significantly increase its value if the hotel is small, outdated, or in a high-demand residential area.
🗳️ No elections in Blackpool this week but there were by-elections at Kirkham Town Council and Ansdell and Fairhaven Parish Council. Bucking the national trend of very strong showings for Reform UK, both elections returned Conservative candidates. Cllr Karen Buckley, the Conservative leader of Fylde Council, said that it’s a reflection on what they deliver locally. Fylde is quite clearly not part of Blackpool from a local authority perspective, but the two authorities are likely to be grouped together after local government reorganisation is complete.
By Michael Holmes
The Environment Agency is now seriously exploring the closure of the Jameson Road landfill, The Blackpool Lead can reveal.
It comes after Blackpool residents became the latest to kick up a stink over a nasty whiff allegedly emanating from a controversial tip in nearby Wyre.
A strong, rotten egg-like smell lingered over the north of the resort last Saturday night (2 May), forcing some to keep their windows shut and avoid their gardens after a warm spring day.
The suspect was quickly fingered as Fleetwood’s Jameson Road landfill, where the pong over the past 18 months is alleged to have triggered health issues such as headaches and nosebleeds.
But Transwaste, which runs the site, said it is “highly unlikely to have been the cause” – instead suggesting sewerage or “decomposing seaweed and other intertidal material” from the beach could be to blame.
The stench was so strong on Saturday that it wafted for miles, past packed hotels, and lingered over swathes of the town as the sun set.
One local, Lee-Ann Davy, said it stunk of “rotten sewers” in Cleveleys, writing online that she had never “smelt it like that before”.
Gayle Cherri Ward claimed: “It’s the Fleetwood landfill site. Could smell it in Layton as well.”
And Peet Right urged people to report the odour to the Environment Agency (EA), saying: “The stench is reaching all over the Fylde coast and Over Wyre.
“Each report helps us towards getting (the tip) shut down.”
The same smell was noticeable in Bispham days later, on Friday evening.
The EA, which said it received 310 complaints about the tip over the bank holiday weekend, taking the total number of reports since the start of last year to 17,880, said it is now considering suspending Transwaste’s licence or shutting the site in the “context of the latest information”.
Changes to the operator’s permit are also one of the “serious options which are being explored”, a spokesperson said.
They said in a statement to The Blackpool Lead: “The community should not have to tolerate odour pollution and we have made this position clear to Transwaste.
