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.
From answering machines in the 90s to the iconic WhatsApp voice notes of recent years, UK rappers have always used recorded messages to forge connection, intimacy and reveal their inner depths.
Panicked bluster and inaccurate generalities. We read the bizarre AI-generated rip-offs of Liz Truss’s new book - Ten Years to Save the West - so you don’t have to.
The scandal was long in the public eye, but feeling something is vastly different to merely knowing it, and narrative productions is how many of us connect to issues emotionally. This is why ongoing cuts to production budgets spell disaster.
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.
Ghanian artist and poet Kwame Aidoo reports his impressions from the climate change Biennale that is bringing African voices into the heart of the architectural mainstream - despite obstruction from Italy's own government.
Both the subject and Christopher Nolan's craft would have been better served by a miniseries - or by expanding one of this film's dazzling array of cinematic styles into a standalone film.
On the face of it, a new category exclusively reserved for African music could end the drought of African winners. However, this move is risky precisely because it is exclusive - and so generic.
The 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Leslie Lokko, feels like a radical subversion of everything you might expect from the world's main architectural exhibition - deposited right into the heart of the artistic establishment.
Police threats to crack down on protests against the monarchy aren't about law and order- they're just demands for deference.
I spent decades dodging the true-crime documentary that showcased my family’s trauma. Then, just as Netflix was set to revive it, came my chance to show what happens after the credits roll.