Residents outline traffic and footpath issues in Blackpool

A need for additional facilities and green spaces, issues with traffic, and footpath improvements are some of the key issues residents in Blackpool would like to see addressed, according to a new report.

The report, a collaboration with staff and students from the Centre for Planning, Education and Research (CPER) at University College Cork (UCC) was presented to residents at an event in Blackpool Community Centre in recent days hosted by the Blackpool Regeneration Group. It followed a community consultation event last year entitled ‘A Vision for Blackpool’.

The Blackpool Regeneration Group had approached CPER to enquire if students from the Masters in Planning and Sustainable Development would undertake a land use survey and facilitate a community engagement evening in Blackpool.

Cork City Council collaborated in the scoping and organising of the project and members of the community attended the consultation, facilitated by the students and supervised by CPER staff, in April last year.

The final report states that, in order to get a “comprehensive view” of how local residents view Blackpool, a tool entitled ‘How Good Is Our Place?’ which was developed for the Scottish government was used “to frame discussions and elicit responses”.

The scale ranges from one, ‘Very Weak’, to seven, ‘Doing Really Well’.

Of the eight topics discussed, ‘natural space, play and recreation’, ‘traffic and parking’ and ‘moving around’ received the poorest average ratings at 1. 4, 2, and 2, 3, respectively.

Under the first category, residents involved in the engagement evening said that in terms of natural spaces in Blackpool, “the selection is very limited” and that free space is a “desirable but lacking asset in Blackpool”.

In relation to parking and traffic, one key issue found “was the amount of pedestrian paths that are disrupted in Blackpool on account of poorly-managed street-parking standards”. However, a small number said they disagreed with this.

In relation to moving around, the report stated that the general consensus amongst residents at the event was that Blackpool “can be a difficult area to travel and get around, both on foot and by other modes of transport”.

Many residents considered local footpaths to be too narrow.

Many members of the community were also concerned regarding the high volume of vehicular and heavy-goods-vehicle traffic, and some residents “thought their community had become more of a thoroughfare and a route into the city centre, rather than maintaining a sense of place for itself”.

The areas which received the highest average ratings were ‘identity and belonging’ and ‘jobs and businesses’, both at 3.6.

The final report was presented last week by Jeanette Fitzsimons, a lecturer with UCC’s CPER, accompanied by several students.

Speaking after the event, chairperson of the Blackpool Regeneration Group, Denis Fitzpatrick, said Blackpool “falls between stools” in that some of the area is in the city’s North East ward, while some is in the North West.

Mr Fitzgerald said the group would like to see a joint local area committee meeting facilitated.

He told The Echo: “We were hoping that they’d [councillors] have a joint meeting in the community centre where we as a community could sit down with them and hand them this report and say: ‘Right, let’s focus on these things’, and then deal with the issue as well as the flooding, because flooding is a major issue, and again it happened at the weekend.

“It hasn’t happened to date, but we’re hoping that it will.”