That is to say, Little Layton is one of the nicer parts of Blackpool. Yet it is one of 169 places across the UK awarded up to £20m over 10 years as part of a £5bn government programme to spruce up parks, pubs and public buildings.
The fund, nicknamed “levelling up 2.0”, is hoped by Labour to help them tackle the threat of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, whose popularity is growing in many of the places allocated money on Thursday.
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Mark Walmsley, 45, the chair of the Layton Together community project, welcomed the money and hopes it could be used open a youth club long planned for the area. “It’s a good idea – if the decisions are made locally,” he said. “That’s the key.”
You mean local bloke who will get to spend the money thinks it’s very important that local blokes get to spend the money?
Didn’t see that one coming, did you?
The scheme, announced on Thursday, will see communities handed powers to seize boarded-up shops and buy beloved local assets like libraries and cinemas.
If they were beloved they’d be well used. That they need subsidy shows they are not well used. “Seizure” is also known as theft.
On Thursday lunchtime, a queue of about 50 people snaked outside the door of Layton Methodist church. They were there not to pray but to eat. Each week, Blackpool’s Big Food Project opens the church hall to people who pay between £5 and £16 for a hamper of groceries and toiletries that would cost far more in a supermarket. Some leave with platform trolleys piled with £60 worth of goods, for which they pay £16.
Ever wondered why the shops are boarded up if everyone’s getting everything for free?
““They don’t care if there’s a new lamp-post or a flower basket,” said Jakki Garner, 61, a former English teacher who teaches cooking at Forward Project, a community scheme in Layton. “Parents can’t buy shoes for their children or winter coats because they’re spending all their money on food. This feels like a sticking-plaster initiative.”
What are they spending the Child Allowance on then?
“Sarah Bell, 46, a volunteer at the food project, said the new £2m a year funding for Layton “ain’t gonna touch the sides” of people’s challenges. “[Starmer’s] thrown money to make things look good to cover up the cracks … I hate to say it but it feels like we’re getting more and more like a third-world country. It’s heartbreaking.”
You don’t say, Sarah…and it’s got little to do with foodbanks.