NOISY slot machines roar at the Pirates Bay fun arcade as the race commentator calls horse number 11 home in the £1 game.
Outside Blackpool’s famous Golden Mile, an elderly couple points to the resort’s Tower Ballroom, which recently hosted the glitz and glamor of Strictly Come Dancing.
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Blackpool is known as the ‘Las Vegas of the North’, but pull back the curtain and all is not as it seems
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Takeout is cheap in a seaside town
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The infamous fast food shop with £1 burgers in the shadow of the TowerCredit: Supplied
But just behind Blackpool Tower, away from the blinding lights and hidden from the hordes of tourists and TV viewers, is a far bleaker world with the lowest life expectancy in the country.
Here, dealers sell heroin for as little as £10 and drinkers sell pints of beer for as little as £1.80 in packed pubs.
Cheap kebab shops are competing for customers with fast food vans, and a favorite fast food joint is even selling burgers for just £1.
There, children in rags have even been seen running barefoot through the streets, with locals telling The Sun of growing problems, including “undesirables” plaguing the area.
Locking her front door on a street lined with crack cocaine dens and clapboard houses, Janet Edwards, 53, said: “This is like Detroit.”
The mum-of-three added: “But I love it here in Blackpool.
“It gets a bad rap, but I don’t think it’s any worse than anywhere else.
“It’s just that there are too many pubs and takeaways.
“There are too many temptations for people – that’s why they die so young here.
“There are problems here with bad food and drink, but sometimes it can be a nice place – the beach is fantastic, especially in the summer.
Thieves, gang attacks and 5am parties – Blackpool’s biggest scandals
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The streets are full of shuttered and boarded-up shops
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“However, there are problems here… it is humid here and there is a lot of mold in the houses.
“Many houses are old and bad, and many undesirable people are thrown here.”
£10 heroin hits
Walking down the road with his coat zipped up against the cold, ex-soldier Ian Thomas, 53, had just been given a place at a hostel in the shadow of Blackpool Tower after being homeless.
The former drug addict served in the army in the first Gulf War in 1990.
He was stabbed in the stomach while fighting in Iraq and later suffered from PTSD.
The 53-year-old said: “I came to Blackpool on leave from the army. I met my partner in a nightclub in 1990 and never left.
There are too many people who eat badly. I see that some people on my street have two or even three take-out meals a day.
Hayley Moss
“Blackpool is inundated with drugs and I got hooked on heroin, you can buy it here for just £10 so a lot of people get hooked.
“You think you’re doing the best for your kids, but looking back we probably neglected them. It’s not something I look back on with pride.
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The houses in the residential street are covered with clapboards Credits: Delivered
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Blackpool Police raided a drug shop in 2019 as part of an ongoing campaign to crack down on the trafficking of illegal substances Credit: Blackpool Police
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Cocaine, zombie knives and large amounts of cash found in police Operation Enigma raidCredit: Blackpool Police
“There are a lot of homeless people and people begging here. I just got a place at a homeless shelter and I want to change things.”
As we speak, three suspected dealers are walking down the street, trying to sell deadly substances to a man passing by.
Former crack cocaine addict David Castell (48) moved to the glitzy resort three months ago from Leicester.
He said: “I wanted to come here to try to get away from my old life.
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David Castell used to have a £300 drug habit and hopes to kick it Credit: Submitted
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This seaside town has been hit by county gangs Credit: Blackpool Police
“It was my parents’ favorite place and I like it here so my choice was to come here.
“I got out of prison and I served my sentence for burglary.
“At one point I had £300 a day of crack cocaine so I had to find that money every day.
“I see that there are a lot of drug and alcohol problems here and that there are a lot of homeless people.
Hotspots of early death in Great Britain
Author: Josh Saunders
A SHOCKING new report has named the UK the country with the lowest life expectancy in all of Western Europe.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), we can expect to live up to 80.9 years.
That lags behind other countries, including top-ranked Switzerland at 84.2, Spain at 84 and Italy at 83.6.
And even more shockingly, ONS figures from earlier this year reveal that the picture is even brighter when broken down into areas across the UK, as we reveal below:
Areas of the UK with the lowest life expectancy for men
- Blackpool – 73.41
- Manchester – 74.80
- City of Kingston upon Hull – from 04.75
- Blackburn with Darwen – 75.15
- Liverpool – 75.32
- Middlesbrough – 75.43
- Burnley – 75.50
- Stoke-on-Trent – 75.55
- Rochdale – 75.67
- Sandwell – 75.68
Areas of the UK with the lowest life expectancy for women
- Blaenau Gwent – 78.88
- Blackpool – 78.98
- Manchester – 79.22
- Liverpool – 79.31
- Knowsley – 79.32
- Merthyr Tydfil – 79.44
- Middlesbrough – 79.48
- Barrow-in-Furness – 79.81
- Stoke-on-Trent – 79.86
- City of Kingston upon Hull – 79.88
Source: ONS report 2024
“But I’ve been placed in decent accommodation and hopefully this is a new start for me.”
But David will undoubtedly face difficulties, despite a series of major police raids on drug houses in recent years and the arrests of kingpins Anthony and Bradley Gill, who “flooded” Blackpool with “huge quantities” of cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis worth millions.
Hotspot of early death
A report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has just found that the UK has the worst life expectancy in Western Europe.
And the Office for National Statistics said Blackpool has the lowest life expectancy for men and women in England and Wales.
A boy born in Hart, Hampshire, between 2020 and 2022 can expect to see his 83rd birthday – the biggest on record.
Meanwhile, the Blackpool-born boy is only likely to live to be 73 – a difference of more than a decade.
You see many mothers and families struggling to feed their children and sometimes even to clothe them. That is very sad.
Jamie-Lee Curry
Lancashire’s tourist mecca has some of the highest rates of deaths linked to alcohol, drug abuse and suicide.
The popular seaside town – known as the ‘Las Vegas of the North’ – has also regularly been named the unhealthiest place to live in England.
Cheap drinks and take-out are all too common in the popular seaside town.
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One homeless man sleeps at the entrance to the store Credits: Delivered
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Homeless Ian Thomas could get heroin for a tenner Credits: Delivered
It is plagued by high unemployment, poverty, cheap medicine and poor nutrition.
Three takeaway meals a day and children in rags
Unemployed cleaner Hayley Moss, 27, said: “There are people with obesity and diabetes.
“There are too many people who eat badly. I see some people on my street eating two or even three take-out meals a day.”
Charity worker Jamie-Lee Curry, 49, said: “It’s not just one problem here, there are many different factors.
“A lot of work is done to help people.
Blackpool is overrun with drugs and I got hooked on heroin, you can buy it here for just £10 so a lot of people get hooked
Ian Thomas
“You see many mothers and families struggling to feed their children and sometimes even to clothe them. It’s very sad.”
However, there is a lot of civic pride in a town that has tried to move on from its reputation for drunken hens and stags and drunken violence.
Millions have been invested in redeveloping the prom to attract more families to the beach and Pleasure Beach with its Big One rollercoaster.
Donkey and carriage rides are popular in summer as people flock to shops selling Blackpool Rock.
Response from Blackpool Council
A spokesman for Blackpool Council told The Sun: “As a local authority, we are fully committed to improving the quality of life for the people of our town, as well as continuing to attract the millions of visitors who come to Blackpool every year because they love it so much.
“Although Blackpool is so famous for its fun and happy times, like many other seaside towns it faces economic and health challenges, including high levels of deprivation, addiction and social need, and we are doing a lot to tackle these issues head on. .
“Working proactively with our colleagues in the NHS, as well as other partners, we deliver a range of health and social care schemes to try to ensure that families, children and individuals get the help and advice they need.
“At the same time, we have to look to the future. So together with partners we are investing heavily in Blackpool in a diverse range of development projects to drive economic regeneration, create new jobs to support our communities and provide an improved environment for residents and visitors.
“Next year, our new civil service center will be opened, which will bring more than 3,000 office workers to the center of our city – a big boost for local businesses. In addition, work will continue on the development of a new higher education campus, Multiversity, which will provide generations of our children with skills and opportunities in a location accessible to all.
“In 2025 we will also start to deliver the £90m of funding we received from Homes England to create hundreds of more genuinely affordable, quality homes for Blackpool residents.”
Alicia Lucas, a 76-year-old mother of three, said: “I love it here – the shops are easy to get to and everything is here.
“Prom is dressed up and, of course, stunning in the summer.
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Alicia Lucas is concerned about the amount of povertyCredit: Submitted
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Many parents cannot afford food for their children, says charity worker Jamie Lee CurryCredit: Submitted
“I feel lucky to live here, but there is poverty here. You see many families using food banks.”
And unsurprisingly, most are delighted with Strictly’s annual visit to Blackpool for its most legendary show of the series at the resort.
The BBC dance competition first took hold there in 2004, and Strictly stars have even been known to host the odd wild party at the resort.
Presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman appeared to be enjoying a boozy night out in November 2019, when they were seen dancing with champagne glasses still in hand.
Back outside Pirates Bay by the main pier, Strictly fan Tracey Hughes, 53, said: “It’s great fun having them here in Blackpool.
“I spoke to Craig Revel Horwood once. He was very sweet and not grumpy like he can be on television.
“He called me ‘Darling’ and said he loved being in Blackpool.”
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The shutter of the hamburger shop is covered in graffitiCredits: Submitted
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education