What It Looks Like From Where I’m Standing
1. I was first selected by Blackpool Labour Party to stand for the Council in 1963 when I was a law student at Manchester University. I lost, but in those days Labour candidates invariably lost, and it was encouraging to see the Labour vote in the old 11,000 electorate Layton Ward nearly double. Over the next few years I was to stand unsuccessfully eight further times, losing on a couple of occasions by a few votes. After contesting three Parliamentary Elections – in South Fylde in 1964 and in Lancaster during the two 1974 ‘Miners’ Elections’ (losing the first by just over 1,400 votes), I was elected to Blackpool Council at a bye-election in Layton Ward on 24 July 1975 and represented Layton people for eight years until 7th May 1987 when I did not seek election that year. Four years later I was elected by Victoria Ward residents and have had the privilege of being one of their two Labour Councillors for that Ward ever since.
2. When I became first involved in local politics, Labour had a fluctuating number of councillors - down to three in some years, and up to as many as seven when things were really good for us - from a Council of 68 members. It took a long march to pull off what is still the sensational victory of 1991 when Labour took office in Blackpool for the first time ever and ended Tory rule going back to the town’s establishment as an independent borough in 1876. I cannot claim after years of honest struggle that I ever believed it would be possible. But Ivan Taylor, the natural leader that he is, seems never to have had any doubts and it was he who led Labour to that overwhelming, landslide success.
3. The Tories’ past finally caught up with them. They had presided over years of obvious decline – overseeing the loss of theatres, the Palace, the Queen’s, the Winter Gardens Pavilion, cinemas closing all over town; conspiring with Littlewoods to pull down the Grand Theatre and opposing the Friends of the Grand at the 1973 Public Enquiry for consent to its destruction; demolishing the Olympic size Derby Baths and diving pit rather than refurbish it; tearing up the art deco open air swimming pool on South Promenade; making a boast of constantly ‘keeping the rates down’ when the town had desperately needed renewal, renovation, new ideas and hope for years, before they were pushed from office by a disenchanted, Blackpool electorate.
4. Labour in 1991 had captured the public imagination with a series of policy proposals which the town’s chief officers at the time insisted were impractical. Just two examples of what we faced. Residents’ Parking ? “Couldn’t be done ! Quite impractical !” The town’s first indoor sports centre at Stanley Park ? “You don’t have the money to build it and even if we did manage to scrape it together, the money isn’t there to staff it.” Against such advice it wasn’t easy to insist that we went ahead with those two projects. But we did. At the same time, within a short time of taking office we were faced as a Labour Council with the issue of the electrical installations on the Promenade which supplied the street lighting, the tramway and the Illuminations. Not only was the whole system worn out, it presented an immediate danger to anyone who might brush against a stanchion as they passed by. This hadn’t happened overnight. The Tories had simply failed to make provision for its maintenance. We had to find the money or see the tramway shut down and put paid to the Illuminations. It cost us several million pounds to put right, and wehadno choice but to do it there and then.
5. Blackpool’s present problems had been coming for years. Labour had argued in opposition right up to winning power sixteen years ago that massive change had to come about.
6. On taking office as a reforming administration there was an obvious problem. We had difficulty in funding any attempt to re-vitalise the town because of the dead hand of the other Tories, those in London led by John Major who carried on Mrs Thatcher’s sustained attack on local government finance – from poll tax to capping, from a huge reduction year in year out on the level of Government grant and preventing councils from borrowing to achieve investment.
7. Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came to office in 1997. For the first couple of years, we knew there could be little alteration to the financial climate in which the Council had to operate until Labour could establish a reputation for financial prudence. This has brought about the longest period of economic growth in the nation’s history, with low inflation and high employment.
8. From 2000 there began the start of the considerable increase in Government funding and the relaxation of controls on how the Council was able to borrow and plan for infrastructure investment.
9. The Council in the meantime had satisfied the Boundary Commissioners of Blackpool’s overwhelming case to be allowed to break away from Lancashire County Council and become once again a fully self-governing authority with the full powers of local government as a unitary authority. That change in ocal democracy took place in April 1998.
10. The situation we inherited from the County Council was not good. Huge amounts of money were needed to fund social services when Council rest homes were very lightly occupied and expensive to run, social workers were employed in insufficient numbers for the heavy demands on the service in a town where a quarter of the population is over 60, and we were losing key staff to the County who were paying more for their skills. Our schools needed money to drive up standards and give our young people a chance in life. The libraries were stretched and failing to provide an efficient and challenging modern profile.
11. Initially all our efforts were extended to aid our schools. Then we concentrated on the improvement of social services. Then the libraries and leisure services generally.
12. We were all too aware of the wider infrastructure difficulties which were holding back our tourism industry, numbers of visitors falling year on year, many businesses failing to invest in on the back of lowering turnover for themselves. That downward spiral was an obvious threat to the town’s economy and the prospects for our future. All our research showed that the average bed occupancy, across the board from our major hotels to the modest boarding house, was about 22%. Most of our smaller business premises simply could not keep going and many were grabbing the chance to become ‘houses in multiple occupation’. They provided basic shelter and a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach for their tenants on limited incomes. This trend was another more insidious threat to our holiday industry. We needed a lot more decent homes but the Council was prevented from building them. We needed to arrest the dramatic drop in visitors.
13. It was in 2000 that the Labour leadership began to look at the concept of the Resort Casino on the American style as a serious means of bringing about private sector investment on a massive scale.
14. We had been able to persuade the Ministry that the need to protect the South Shore area from sea flooding should not be met by a poor quality sea-wall as at Rossall – concrete but no sparkle – and that the vision should be for a new promenade, styled like an ocean liner, and a display area for major works of public art. The cost was much greater but, as part of Blackpool’s shop window, the greater expense should be justified.
15. The tramway needed major modernisation if it were to survive. The trams were all of 1934 vintage and wouldn’t last for ever. They were difficult for the disabled and mothers with young children to board. But it was the track itself which presented the greatest challenge and needed to be replaced. The prospect of extending it to Lytham was canvassed. Could it also adopt the railway route through Poulton and through to Fleetwood, providing fast, modern public transport along the Wyre where the former ICI site was going over to housing ? A scheme costing over £100 million was explained to Government with the support of neighbouring authorities. The first tranche of that money came through in 2006 and the engineering work is well underway
16. Labour decided to bring in international town planners with flair to look with imaginative eyes on Blackpool’s seafront, its prospects, and how the Council might use its clout with Government agencies to arrest the resort’s long-term decline. The Masterplan was the result. From the word go it was decried by Tories and Lib Dems. ‘Couldn’t work’. ‘Too ambitious’. ‘Where was the money coming from ?’
17. Government gave us the green light for the establishment of a re-generation company heavily backed with Government money through the North West Development Agency. National Lottery money came through in a big way for the restoration of Stanley Park. Efforts began in earnest to find a commercial airport operator with the capital required to invest in its expansion and so attract new routes. With its annual subsidy varying from to £300,000 to £800,000 it was becoming difficult for the Council to keep up the level of investment required by the Civil Aviation Authority, let alone pay an airline a subsidy to help establish new routes. The capital from the airport’s sale would be useful in funding investment in the Masterplan and the Council retains a minority shareholding with a Director on the Airport Company's Board so that the Council's view on airport expansion can continue to be made.
18. The first park since 1926 was built along the spine road and dedicated to the memory of George Bancroft, Labour’s Council leader who died in office while all these plans were being worked up. The ‘new’ gateway into Blackpool would proclaim the town’s ambition.
19. Compared with the disgraceful neglect under the Tories, years of living in the shadow of those whose enterprise had made Blackpool in the late nineteenth century and ignoring the signs of decay, Labour’s efforts in just 15 years have been sensationally good and successful.
20. Money was being found for investment in our roads and pavements which had been responsible for numerous claims from residents and visitors who were tripping and injuring themselves. ‘Street Scene’ was set up as a cross-department initiative chaired by a senior officer to deal with all matters which affected the built environment – domestic waste collection, public toilets, litter, highway improvement, wild flower propagation, graffiti, street lighting – all those things which impact on the urban quality of life.
21. The capital programme was public realm has grown from a tiny modicum of annual expenditure to a programme now running at £70 million annually. Very little of this is coming from the income raised directly from our residents through the Council Tax. Most of it comes from central Government, directly, or indirectly. It is making a tremendous difference to Blackpool’s prospects.
22. That is why it is so upsetting that the recommendation of the Casino Advisory Panel, set up by Tessa Jowell as the Minister responsible for gambling regulation, has come down against Blackpool’s becoming the site for the very first ‘Regional’ casino. Having it here – the only one in the whole of the UK – would be a tremendous stimulus for curious visitors to come and see all it had to offer and for business interests across the leisure field to come in on the back of that increase in visitor numbers. It would push up land values as rundown properties were acquired for improvement, sites marshalled for re-development and wage levels increased as employers competed for staff.
23. To achieve continuing success at the polls requires the Labour Council to retain the confidence and the respect of the electorate. We have to be seen by them to be committed, to have a vision of what is best for our town and its people, to know how to deliver, and to do so, and not allow pride in what we bring about lead to smugness or complacency. Much of Labour’s successes has been due to our belief in ourselves and a commitment to making things happen. There will always be griping letters in the ‘Evening Gazette’ from some Tory malcontents. The surprising thing, perhaps, is how little opposition our policies have faced. Within the Town Hall it scarcely exists. The Tories have been effectively invisible and inaudible since they lost control for the first time in 115 years. In truth the strength, logic and desirability of all aspects of our programme have made it difficult for Tories and Liberals alike to mount any coherent attack. They are reduced to shouting ‘Yah ! Boo !’ from the touchline while Labour scores the goals.
24. The public generally have been very supportive of our achievements and the esprit de corps we have displayed in implementing our programme. Labour’s leadership of the Council has encouraged in its officers a desire to problem-solve, an attitude of can-do which had been stifled and suppressed over the years of lethargy with the Tories (whose only claim in every election was to have kept the rates down). Officers had sat on their hands and opted for the quiet life. Taking initiatives for them was pointless when they all knew the Tory doctrine of ‘hands off’ meant everything had to be done the same old way.
25. Labour in office have kept the rates/council tax down, too, - consistently the lowest Council Tax in Lancashire - but we have also begun the massive task of rebuilding the town’s infrastructure after generations of neglect. We have been able to appoint so many of our chief officers with the regaining of unitary status and who are keen to share our vision of the way forward for Blackpool. Our concerns for social inclusion, economic revival, an attractive place to live for every reason, are being reflected in all the new initiatives the Council is taking through the professional commitment of our officers. The Cabinet system of local government – whereby six Labour councillors direct policy decision making – has been part of that quiet revolution at the Town Hall.
26. For some of us who have been around longer than we care to remember and have experienced the harshness of local politics for the Left - when we had a handful of councillors, when parliamentary Tory majorities were enormous, when all Town Hall coverage by the ‘Evening Gazette’ under the Grime family was heavily biased against us - these are certainly wonderful times in which to be around. I contested nine successive elections before giving it up for the easier existence as Secretary of the Blackpool District Labour Party (now the Local Government Committee). The boundary changes which increased the pre-1974 wards from 17 to 22 were important in bringing about Labour’s electoral successes over the following seventeen years. To have presented that case for change to the Boundary Commissioners at the public enquiry on the Party’s behalf is something for which I continue to be pleased. I recall how delighted we all were when our case was accepted by them in its entirety.
27. Opposition politics, nationally or locally, are only fun when you are able to stop banging your head against the wall. Power on the other hand means knowing that at every meeting, the Agenda is ours, and the decisions taken mean the steady progress of our programme for change.
28. For my own part I still find it hard to believe my good fortune in now serving the Blackpool public as the Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Community Learning with so much authority to influence - and, hopefully, enhance - how our town, my home town, will look in the coming years. With all my Labour colleagues, what I want more than anything is to transform our town's fortunes and give our young people real prospects for personal advancement. They must have a future here with rising wage levels and all-round growing prosperity - that's what I want to see happen. I believe I shall.
DAVID OWEN
27 February 2007