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Blackpool Council plan

2019-2024 Blackpool Council Plan 

In early 2022 Blackpool Council produced a progress update to its 2019 to 2024 council plan. Between 2019 and 2022 we have delivered many of the building blocks for transforming and modernising the town. For the remaining period of the plan, we will strive to ensure that local people and businesses obtain the maximum benefit possible from these changes – this was always a core purpose of the plan and the recent past has only increased its importance.

We remain committed to strengthening our economy and our communities and focussing on the things that matter. Some of the plan is about using programmes and projects we’ve already got in place to deliver more, faster. And some of it is about starting on new projects which fit with our vision and priorities.

The 2019-2024 council plan is our response to this picture. It’s our way of telling the story of our town so that everyone – residents, organisations and visitors – understands what we’re doing, who we’re doing it with, and why we’re doing it.

Our vision for Blackpool continues to be:

The UK’s number one family resort with a thriving economy that supports a happy and healthy community who are proud of this unique town.

The council will drive forward a modern vision of Blackpool, its economy and its position as the premier seaside resort in the UK, while also providing the help, support and opportunities for local people to make the most of their lives.

Our priorities

Our council plan is built around two main goals which give us a clear focus and direction as we move forwards.

Some of our key achievements to date are outlined below, together with important ongoing projects we aim to deliver up to 2024:

  • Priority One – Communities
  • Priority Two – The Economy

Health and social care

  • Blackpool’s Community Stop Smoking Service provides bespoke help for all those who wish to stop smoking, reaching out into the community, to local GP surgeries, workplaces and through social media
  • Our new Active Lives Strategy stresses the importance of physical activity for physical, social and mental wellbeing

Supporting families

  • We have invested in children’s social care, supporting more children to remain with their families and providing more local homes for children in our care. Substantial progress has been made, but more still needs to be done
  • ‘Blackpool Families Rock’ is our new, more positive, strength-based, relationship-based approach to working with families – an approach co-designed with local parents

Improving outcomes for young people

  • Working with school leaders we have reduced the number of permanent exclusions by more than half.
  • Nearly 90% of Blackpool’s schools are now judged to be good or outstanding by Ofsted and none are judged to be inadequate.
  • We are working collaboratively with the third sector and young people to review the existing youth provision across the town

Increasing resilience

  • During the lifetime of Headstart, 45 schools participated, with over 3,500 primary school children benefiting from resilience-based classes. The project has won the UK Youth award for innovation
  • Working with key local partners, we are piloting an intensive neighbourhood-based approach in Claremont seeking to bring together all local services to better support residents

Improving housing

  • My Blackpool Home now offers over 500 quality affordable homes for rent and we have started again to build new council homes at scale at Troutbeck and Grange Park
  • We have increased funding for the Neighbourhood Environment Action Team to ensure a greater focus on fly tipping and environmental crime

Visitor experience: Tourism and culture

  • The new conference centre at the Winter Gardens will increase the number of conferences in Blackpool
  • We secured £4.5M from the Town Deal for the Illuminations, supporting infrastructure, new technology and artist commissions
  • Blackpool’s £14M new museum of fun and entertainment, Showtown, is currently under constructions and will open in 2023
  • Work has begun to deliver the first phase of the £300 million investment into Blackpool Central, with approved outline plans for a major public events square, three indoor entertainment centres, a hotel, and restaurants

Enterprise, skills and economic inclusion

  • Since 2018, we have supported over 600 people into work
  • By the end of September 2021 the Business Loans Fund scheme had created 650 jobs and safeguarded further 1,100 jobs

Infrastructure and regeneration

  • Talbot Gateway Phase 2 is due to complete in 2022 – with a new tram extension, connecting to Blackpool North and 144 more additional quality hotel rooms in the centre of town
  • We have invested £7.84m in giving Blackpool’s key roads a facelift
  • The Enterprise Zone has attracted over 1,600 jobs
  • Over 3,000 Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) staff will move into a new £100 office development at Talbot Gateway in 2024