Raw sewage was released into open water on the Fylde Coast more than 1,500 times in 2022. The result is Blackpool's hard-fought status as a safe place to swim is in jeopardy.
Cinema was once an important piece of Blackpool’s allure of affordable glamour, with seventeen movie theatres operating in the town at its peak. Now, almost a year after the final Odeon has gone dark, the local council is opening a nine-screen multiplex of its own.
Scott Benton, Conservative MP for Blackpool South, said his constituents could “only dream” of being as “well-cared” for as detained asylum seekers. Have 12 years of Tory rule left his town that destitute? We went to find out.
Scott Benton's resignation, which comes with a recall petition process already underway, will trigger a by-election for Blackpool South
Lead Editor (North) and Senior Editor (North) join to launch new newsletters and coverage for The Lead in Blackpool, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and Teesside.
The Talbot social club admits it was due to host the two day event that was cancelled following an investigation into the gig promoter behind it
There are around 1,300 spaces like Kilmory Community Centre in Bispham keeping people out of the cold. But their future is far from secure and their reason for existing in the first place points to a failure of government and politicians.
The Blackpool South by-election follows five others since October where Labour has won Conservative seats.
Private rentals in Blackpool and the growing mould problems
A landlord has been served a hazard awareness notice after The Blackpool Lead shared photos of Jade’s mouldy home with the council. But it's a problem in every one of the town’s 18,000 privately rented houses.
Britain’s boating community once moved according to the season; now, they are being forced from our rivers and canals by extortionate charges.
Private ownership has been allowed to become synonymous with having the right to feel truly at home at all. A new generation of DIY influencers are bucking the trend, and are making renting - and social housing - appear fulfilling and desirable once again.
Despite its comfortable image, the seaside city faces a unique convergence of every single aspect of the national housing shortage - and 10 new people present as homeless every single day.
The Lead's Leah Borromeo speaks with fellow documentary filmmaker Paul Sng about "Tish" - an intimate, powerful portrait about photographer Tish Murtha and her social realist images of 1970s and 1980s Britain.
When it comes to the housing crisis, our attention is drawn to towns and cities. But the countryside is running out of affordable housing too, with young people and new families paying the price.
Far from being insulated from the ups and downs of the real estate market, social and emergency housing has become tethered to it - and is facing an entirely new crisis of its own.
Shared owners face a triple whammy: rising mortgage payments, rises in the rental charge on the portion of the property they don’t own, and ever-rising service charges. And worst of all? They virtually can't get out.
Landlords in London's artsy warehouse district are following the old playbook: rent out cheaply, let creative tenants liven up the place, then kick them out and cash in. But this time, residents are fighting back.
Residents in Urmston are locked in a bitter struggle with their management company. They are paying "extortionate fees", but have no idea where that money is going.
Panic and greed fuel spike in tenants being evicted under the infamous "Section 21" - but the stage for the crisis has been set by decades of bad policy.