We are not amused…
Blackpool contains the poorest locales in the UK, has the lowest male life expectancy, four times the average drug deaths, double the national smoking related deaths, highest proportion of alcohol deaths, highest rate of mental illness in England...Some of the worst educational systems and despite all this has had its government allocated budget reduced by a third compared to richer boroughs which were only hit with 15% budget cuts under austerity measures. In real terms Blackpool has £1500 less per person to spend on its population than 10 years ago.
This is an ongoing documentary project detailing the depravation behind Englands most famous seaside resort.
Three truants and a couple take in a beautiful spring sky...
A block behind the promenade the boarded up houses and broken windows begin.
We are not amused, The Ballroom Blackpool Tower Ballroom is a gorgeous time capsule, a memorial to the ghost of Blackpool past... The afternoon dances, replete with organ player are a touching sight, old people glide across the floor beneath gilded splendour that harkens back to its golden days.
It's truly heartwarming to see the dancers in this gorgeous grandiose ballroom.
I met three boys on the promenade at 13:00 on a school day, they asked if the tide was going out as two of them wanted to swim.
Cheap flats above abandoned shops.
"Not much to do around here" was the reply I got from Dave, a middle aged man sat on a deck chair watching an old brutalist building being torn down. I passed this scene several times that day, the audience grew largeras the day went on until I had to ask them; 'Was this a beloved local building, was there a protest about losing it? Daves reply saddened me.
Freshly painted in the local yard, the paint was still dripping as I boarded my train home.
The decay of so many beautiful historic buildings like this old cinema is an all too common sight
The Golden Mile