So the theme for this week is 'Not in my back yard...' Well I don’t have a back yard, not since we moved from Liverpool to Blackpool for the bracing sea air and obtained a garden - legally I should add.I love Blackpool. I often feel a sense of synergy between the history of the town and that of my home back in Scouseland. Not 20 years ago the rest of the country, under good ole Maggie of course, treated Liverpool like the butthole of the UK and left it to rot. But the spirit of people there wouldn’t accept it, they carried on, fought back and eventually by 2008, Liverpool was not only a great British city, but it was great in the eyes of the world as it won ‘Capital of Culture.’ The city has been redeveloped within an inch of its life but it is still recognisable because its success was not built on steel girders and concrete but on its culture, music and art.
Blackpool is now the town being downtrodden under yet another Tory government and this has never been so clear until today thanks to the stupidity of a publishing house trying to make a quick buck. Fiona Jones covered this idiocy on altblackpool this week and you can read it here:- http://www.altblackpool.co.uk/blackpool-is-it-really-a-crap-town. It is things like this, the bad press and lack of community support for the town is what will kill our Blackpool, not the current goings on.
Don’t get me wrong, I see some terrible things when I’m on the bus home. We’ve all seen ‘999: What’s your Emergency’ and we can’t argue that things seen on there do happen with great frequency. But they will. That’s what happens unless change is implemented. So the council headed up by former bleach blond and pierced part time Guest Services operator Simon Blackburn will do a little bit in their political stride for power and good for them, but in my garden, my back yard, my street, my town, in MY home, it is not up to someone else to fix the problems. It is up to me to take active responsibility for implementing change and it’s up to the local communities to support each other.
This is happening, people just need to be aware that there IS a cultural revolution going on in Blackpool, lifting spirits, brightening empty shop windows and opening up ways to be actively involved in the community. There are amazing voluntary organisations - I have been fortunate enough to meet people from URpotential on a couple of occasions and these guys are incredible! We have one of the country’s most heralded educational gateways to Higher Education sat on Palatine Road giving all ages the chance at a quality higher education. We have groups like Lancashire Dead Good Poets, Aunty Social, altblackpool, Robin Ross with Sand, Sea and Spray, The Blackpool Rollercoasters and so many more all doing something in their special and unique way to bring the sun back to our seaside town and this should not be ignored.
So here’s my pledge. I will write poetry for this town until I can’t write anymore, I will write articles about the great and exciting things that go on here until my computer leaves heat rash on my legs, I will shout out to all who can hear everywhere I go about the pure and untapped potential that is brewing and increasing in Blackpool every day and I will teach me and mine to be proud of Blackpool, proud of our home and proud of our own back garden.Thanks for reading,L :-)
