Sue Grindrod – Blackpool BIDs
There is a real feeling of optimism and new investment is really important. There are two Business Improvement Districts in Blackpool, for the town centre and tourism.
A refresh of the town centre strategy shows the potential that exists there. We know we are going to get 3,000 civil servants and 3,500 students coming into the centre and that changes radically how it functions, so there lies the optimism. Yes, there are spaces in the town centre that need a little bit of help and support but that’s what we’re here for, and certainly those conversations are happening.
When it comes to tourism, we had a great year last year, a lot of money came in from government, the ‘Welcome Back’ funding. We don’t really know what this season is going to be like, so we must have new narratives.
We need things happening to make people want to talk about Blackpool. We’re trying to change the narrative with what’s going on and what’s coming. We’re seeing real green shoots of new independent businesses, coming into the town centre particularly.
The role of the BID, and the council to a degree, is about how to support those businesses so that they continue to invest. To do that they need confidence in the environment around them and the town centre strategy does that.
Sue Grindrod
We have some really good businesses and we need them to make sure that they look great, they’ve got the quality, and they are presented in a way that actually gives other people confidence to come and invest.
We’ve got to wrap our arms around the existing businesses that are doing well, we can’t forget them. Retail is difficult, high streets are changing, town centres are changing, but we’re talking about Blackpool Plc and all those little cogs and wheels within that making it happen.
Peter Evans – Winter Gardens
Blackpool has been asleep for a while, and it has allowed other cities to break its monopoly on being the number one conference venue. It has so much to offer.
People remember Blackpool from their last visit or what they read in the papers, and when they get here they are wowed by what they see, they are engaged with it: the standards, the presentation and the skillsets that are here. And that is not just in this venue but in all the venues, in all the hotels.
Guesthouses are now boutique, they have been upgraded and there is something for everyone in Blackpool, whatever age, whatever trip you are trying to arrange. That is a rarity in most towns and cities.
There is a real passion and a real drive from the council to change the perception of what Blackpool is. The Conservative party came at the beginning of the year and said, ‘this is fantastic, this is just what we are looking for’.
Everyone seems to love Blackpool and to want it to do well. Cities like Liverpool and Manchester are a little bit twitchy because they are starting to see what’s on offer and that a town can rival them. We have to continue investing in hotels and upgrading.
Peter Evans
The challenges remaining are great but there is that passion to overcome obstacles and to make things happen. Blackpool has that belief now.
People need to stop thinking that Blackpool is a poor economy, with poor salaries and poor futures. Recruitment is difficult for lots of reasons, so it is important our colleges give people the skills Blackpool’s businesses need.
Joseph Boniface – Joseph Boniface Architects
As a town Blackpool is relatively young, but it has a number of heritage assets that have come into council ownership and have improved their infrastructure, increasing the offer. Taking them out of private ownership has really helped Winter Gardens and Blackpool Tower where an awful lot of work has gone on.
You don’t get any private investment without the public investment that creates confidence. You walk around the town centre and there are four, five, six big projects underway at the moment with cranes and it just instils a huge amount of confidence.
We have private investor clients, including some from London and overseas, who perhaps five or ten years ago would have looked at Blackpool as somewhere to buy cheap property, spend little money and get maximum return.
That’s changed in the last few years, and we’re finding that particularly in the serviced accommodation sector, they want quality rather than quantity. The rise of Airbnb has helped drive an awful lot of private investment in the town.
People want to invest and invest quickly in projects here. There is an urgency about wanting to get things going.
Progress is our town’s motto. I moved to Manchester in 1999 to go to university so I saw that city just before work started for the Commonwealth Games. The difference between then, 2002 when the games were held and 2008, when I left the city, was incredible. There are similarities here in Blackpool to what happened in Manchester.
Investment from government, with things like the new student centre, the Multiversity, will again bring a different demographic into the town centre.
Joseph Boniface
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