The donation of £153,000 to Lytham Hall by Cuffe and Taylor is a tremendous boost for our only Grade I-listed building in Fylde.
It is also a promise fulfilled by the organisers of the WonderHall Festival, who pledged to donate all of the proceeds of the Last Night of the Proms event to the Hall.
These funds will continue the refurbishment of the Hall and ensure running costs are met.
The Festival appears to have been a complete success, and I am pleased to see the town’s bars, restaurants, cafes and shops all benefiting from the visitors.
We need as many people as possible to take part in a consultation on public transport as part of our bid to double services on the South Fylde line.
My successful Restoring Your Railway bid for the line is at the Strategic Outline Business Case Stage, and consultants Stantec need to gather as much public feedback as possible to help demonstrate public support.
While bus services are useful, they take far longer, are less environmentally friendly, are more susceptible to delays, and any suggestion of a train/tram service at this stage is nonsensical; it would cost hundreds of millions of pounds more and would involve so many stops it would be a far slower option.
We need an improved heavy rail service first and foremost – and anything else could slot into and work alongside that rail service at a later date.
You can complete the survey at https://new.fylde.gov.uk/south-fylde-line-next-steps/ to help us get the rail service we need and deserve.
I spoke with the Environment Agency this week regarding water quality at St Annes Beach. I am pleased to see this year there have only been three non-specific warnings about a potential fall in water quality, which passed within a day. If we go back to 2016, we had 15 such warnings including animal waste in the water (from farmland), animal waste on the beach and issues with heavy rains. We’ve seen improvement on improvement since thanks to improved quality checks, and a lot of hard work by our council staff and litter-picking volunteers.