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.
The bill has damaged the relationship between the justice system and government; it has created a new form of legislation designed to bypass reality itself.
The Mayor of Portland is taking the government to court for mooring the Bibby Stockholm in her town without permission. The government's reply is that the barge is actually on Crown land - all seabed 12 miles out from any British coast. We went to the opening hearing to find out more.
Six Labour MPs have been trying for months to get on board the Bibby Stockholm to check the disturbing reports smuggled out by residents. They are being repeatedly denied.
Asylum requests withdrawn without the applicants’ knowledge. Requests declined, but still eligible for protracted appeal. Appeals rejected but without offering people anywhere else to go. And requests granted in swathes that risk overwhelming both asylum seekers and local authorities. Experts are looking at Rishi Sunak’s apparent success in cutting down the asylum backlog - and they are sounding the alarm.
It’s hard to imagine any other setting in which the fate of more than 150 missing children is dismissed with a shrug by the state - but a system of forced MRI and X-ray tests to uncover mythical adults pretending to be kids gets passed into law.
The warnings were ignored, the concerns played down. And now a man has died. He will not be the last person to lose their life on the Home Office barge.
The prime minister's brutal tightening of rules around seeking asylum is a boon to modern slavers and human traffickers. But the rules can changed as radically in the opposite direction - with much more promising results.
A record number of asylum seekers in the UK have become eligible for work permits after being strung out for over 12 months. But far from being a pull factor for economic migrants the policy is a shambles, NGOs say—as they call on the new Home Secretary to pull the plug.
Migration numbers have hit a record high. Why aren't Tories celebrating this as a win for Brexit?
With delays in the system rife, asylum seekers spend many months in forced idleness until their cases are decided. Here are three people's stories.