Left behind - the view from the bar

This is a brief essay in response to Sarah O'Connor's article in The Financial Times Weekend Magazine published on Saturday 16 November 2017 (O’Connor & Burn-Murdoch, 2017), the conversation it triggered locally and nationally. It is also a response to the meeting held by LeftCoast, ‘Left Behind – Blackpool a Drop Out Town?’  on 18 January 2018 and the mini-manifesto produced by LeftCoast, which will form the foundation for, Left Behind... #2 - Creative Conversation on the 8 February 2018.

The article prompted a renewed personal interest in the decline and fall of Blackpool. I arrived on the Fylde Coast in 1971. Blackpool was in full swing but the chains were well rusted through and it was clear from the public debate and the newspaper headlines that the infrastructure and superstructure was starting to crumble. Family holidays were in decline but weekends, particularly during the “Lights”, were more popular than ever, if the number of cars queuing to get into Blackpool on a Friday evening was anything to go by, and this was pre M55.

Sarah O'Connor's article laid bare the problems of economic decline, low wage economy, social deprivation and the evidence of conflicting government legislation, re benefits, and muddled thinking by local and regional politics. Digging in the archives revealed a library of dust covered reports of one sort or other going back to 2003 and probably further if I could have raised the enthusiasm to look. These were reports that identified all the problems and offered a range of miracle solutions to halt Blackpool’s economic decline and cure the resultant social deprivation. Then there were the government reports offering analysis, solutions and in some cases olive branches and the occasional wad of money to reinvent, save and invigorate coastal or seaside towns and liberate them of their post-industrial ills. Inevitably to add cream to the mouldering pile there are the academic papers and reports that say all the same things but in a language that no one understands.

Left behind: can anyone save the towns the economy forgot? - Financial Times Weekend Magazine

The Financial Times Weekend Magazine published on Saturday 16 November 2017 - link

On The Edge: A Response

This is a response to Sarah O'Connor's article in The Financial Times Weekend Magazine published on Saturday 16 November 2017, On the edge: Inside the town that the British economy forgot (O’Connor & Burn-Murdoch, 2017) Sara's dystopic view of Blackpool, generated an online response which one suspects surprised even the writer. Many of the comments acclaimed the quality of the article. However, a number bemoaned the absence, even as a footnote, of any reference to the positive developments and investment that are taking place in the town.

O’Connor reports on why national policy has failed and asks, what are locals doing to turn things around? It is not clear from the report why national policy has failed, surprising, given the apparent thoroughness of the research. I would suggest that the answer to her question is, the locals have done a great deal, as she would have discovered if her research had been completed, the information is in the public domain.

There is further comment in later blog posts...

Artist in Residence Project - Preston & Wyre Railway 1840 - 1999

In August 2015 retired scientist and local artist Alistair Parker was awarded a commission as Artist in Residence by Wyre BC in partnership with LeftCoast, as part of the “Creative People in Places” initiative on the project, “People Places & Conversation”, part of a collective of six artists.

For his residency he chose to engage with the former historic Preston and Wyre Railway, a wonder of the Industrial Revolution and Victorian innovation. The railway was the vision of Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood and opened in 1840; just five years after the opening of the first passenger railway between Liverpool and Manchester and only five years after work was started on the project. The railway has a fascinating history and was instrumental in the establishment of the port of Fleetwood, as the first town to owe its very existence to the building of a railway and the first seaside town on the Fylde coast. The railway was a great success it was planned to carry 15,000 passengers in its first year, the railway carried 20,000 passengers in the first month.

Unless you are tall enough to see over the parapet of the Breck Road bridge at Poulton Station you probably would not realise that as the railway track emerges from the station heading for Blackpool there is a branch off to the right just before the signal box, the rusting rails disappear into an overgrown tangle of brambles, bushes and rapidly growing trees, this is the disused railway line to Fleetwood, realigned here in 1896. Just four hundred yards further down Breck Road at the junction with Station Road another mysterious piece of railway history has recently been excavated, the remains of the original 1840 railway line to Fleetwood together with the foundations of the original Poulton Station. The Poulton to Fleetwood line closed to passenger traffic in 1970 and finally to freight traffic in 1999. The track rapidly became overgrown and virtually invisible, amazingly the track is still in place as far as the bridge at Jameson Road, a hidden reminder of a speculative adventure.

Plans to reopen the line began in 2006 when Poulton and Wyre Railway Society was formed with the objective of reopening the Poulton to Fleetwood railway line. To date they have refurbished Thornton Cleveleys Station and are currently engaged in the renovation of Burn Naze Station. The Society has cleared significant sections of the track and has a number of railway related items they are in the process of refurbishing, including a diesel shunter. Funds are currently being raised for the purchase and refurbishment of a Diesel Multiple Unit, similar to the last rolling stock that formerly ran on the line. A report commissioned by Wyre BC in 2009 estimated that a full refurbishment of the line would cost in the region of £40m, the option of a Heritage railway run by the Poulton & Wyre Railway Trust would cost £5.5m.

The artists’ task was to find a way of bringing the existence of the railway, its history and future to the attention of a wider audience. With the cooperation of PWRS a limited section of the track was explored together with the history of the railway and the plans for the future. Alistair also conducted a more detailed exploration of the history of the railway through local archives, the Internet and the resources of the British Newspaper Archive. The local libraries proved particularly helpful with this research.

Part of the brief was to engage with the local community. Alistair commission a local artist David McGuire to give his interpretation of the Preston and Wyre Railway. A retired aerospace design engineer, David had been a prolific illustrator and cartoonist in his earlier years but a career and family had cut short his artistic aspirations. It was my intention to offer David a challenge and encourage him to rediscover his artistic talents, I think the results will confirm that he has. Conversations have been had with local residents and people with an interest in the railway and its history. It is planned to engage with local schools in the coming months to complete the project.

Following early retirement as a business man and a career as a Laboratory Scientist, Alistair became a practicing artist, in addition to having a busy commercial art practice, he is engaged in contemporary art research through post-graduate Masters and Doctorate degrees at Lancaster University.

Alistair J Parker, BA(Hons), MA, PhD in progress
Contact: 07711004086 – aj.parker@gmx.com – www.alistairparkerart.com

Wyre Artist in Residence - People Places & Conversation

Wyre Borough Council in partnership with LeftCoast are offering the opportunity of 5 artists in residence commissions for Wyre based contemporary artists.

The residencies will be an opportunity for artists to work in non-familiar locations and use the opportunity to engage with communities, staff and/or the general public to inform the project that is produced.

The residencies will be based within specifically chosen, non-art spaces for the artist to engage with those different audiences.  The commissions are about people and place; finding the stories of the everyday and revealing something about the lives of Wyre.

The artist commissions can be from any art form from digital art, photography, film, to more traditional art forms of drawing, painting or 3D work. The selection panel will be most interested in how this opportunity can be interpreted through ideas and the approach to working with people and location.

Finally the commissioned artists in residence will be invited to bring their projects together into an exhibition or publication to be shown somewhere in Wyre. It will be the role of the exhibiting artists to co-ordinate and curate the exhibition, find a suitable location or touring opportunities. Marketing and organisational support will be provided by Wyre Council and LeftCoast.

It will be the responsibility of the 5 successful artists to co-ordinate when their projects have been completed and when they would like the exhibition to happen. The end of the whole project will need to be no later than the 31 March 2016. 

Wyre Artist in Residence - People Places & Conversation

Wyre Borough Council in partnership with LeftCoast are offering the opportunity of 5 artists in residence commissions for Wyre based contemporary artists.

The residencies will be an opportunity for artists to work in non-familiar locations and use the opportunity to engage with communities, staff and/or the general public to inform the project that is produced.

The residencies will be based within specifically chosen, non-art spaces for the artist to engage with those different audiences.  The commissions are about people and place; finding the stories of the everyday and revealing something about the lives of Wyre.

The artist commissions can be from any art form from digital art, photography, film, to more traditional art forms of drawing, painting or 3D work. The selection panel will be most interested in how this opportunity can be interpreted through ideas and the approach to working with people and location.

Finally the commissioned artists in residence will be invited to bring their projects together into an exhibition or publication to be shown somewhere in Wyre. It will be the role of the exhibiting artists to co-ordinate and curate the exhibition, find a suitable location or touring opportunities. Marketing and organisational support will be provided by Wyre Council and LeftCoast.

It will be the responsibility of the 5 successful artists to co-ordinate when their projects have been completed and when they would like the exhibition to happen. The end of the whole project will need to be no later than the 31 March 2016.