Blackpool rocked by rate rises
A 100-YEAR-OLD former bomber pilot has been reunited with a plane he flew during the Second World War.
Ian Templer saw the Fairey Swordfish take to the sky at the Royal Naval Air Service’s Yeovilton, Somerset, base.
The great-grandfather trained in the biplane in Orkney and was later sent to Detling, Kent, to fly one of three Swordfish torpedo bombers looking out for enemy ships and submarines.
Ian, of Walditch, Dorset, who compared notes with serving RNAS pilot Lieutenant Commander Glenn Allison, said: “When I heard the Admiralty were recruiting for the Fleet Air Arm in 1940 I jumped at it. There wasn’t time to think about the risks.”
His daughter Briony Blair, 65, said: “We are immensely proud of him.” BLACKPOOL’S oldest family-run rock business is up for sale with its angry owners blasting soaring business rates.
Blackwoods has been a magnet for locals and tourists for 75 years and featured on TV.
But now fed-up Geoff Race, 74, and his wife Margaret, 71, have put up a “for sale” sign as they say they cannot afford to continue.
As they make their own rock, they are considered a large firm with their rates more than doubling from £5,800-a-year in 2008 to £13,560 this year.
Margaret, who has written a book about Blackpool rock, said yesterday: “We are clobbered with those rates.”
She also blamed a lack of free parking in the town centre and empty premises around their shop and factory.
She added: “We have to reinvent the high street.”
Charlie Docherty, chairman of Blackpool’s Central Area Business Forum, said: “When footfall falls you don’t make enough to even survive the season let alone the winter or pay the rates. It’s a vicious circle.”