Blackpool’s big problem: at long last its beach has come back into fashion
Blackpool can’t win. For years, the seaside town has suffered the combined effects of Britain’s unreliable weather and cheap international flights, taking its old tourist trade abroad.
Now, the UK is enjoying wall-to-wall sunshine (or was until this week), no one can fly abroad and the crowds are packing onto Blackpool beach. But rather than welcoming the sight, many locals are terrified the influx is going to fuel a surge in Covid-19 cases.
In Parliament this week, the new MP for Blackpool South, a Tory called Scott Benton, lambasted visitors for ignoring social distancing rules and leaving rubbish behind. Blackpool’s council has said it might like to bar access to the city’s seven miles of beaches, but can’t.
More broadly, the city doesn’t seem sure what it wants. Tourism agency Visit Blackpool first rebranded to “Do Not Visit Blackpool” and then went
Many locals are terrified the influx will lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases
for “Visit Blackpool Safely”. From what I recall of a visit in 2017, the palm readers and sweet sellers on the pier could do with the business.
It’s a classic microcosm of the Covid dilemma. Blackpool’s population has the earliest onset of poor health in England and its people die youngest. It is disproportionately elderly and full of smokers.
All of this, you might think, calls for draconian virus-control measures.
But that ignores the question of why Blackpool is so vulnerable. One big reason, surely, is economic deprivation.
The city was once a thriving tourism hub. Now it is known for child poverty and derelict shops. If politicians shut down the new bonanza, isn’t the ultimate result just going to be a cycle of more depression and ill health? And if that is true of Blackpool, is it also true elsewhere?