Eyesore former hotel an ‘accident waiting to happen’

A run-down eyesore building in the middle of one of Blackpool’s tourist areas is attracting large groups of children and youths who are putting themselves at risk.

Visitor Steve Clews was shocked to see the youngsters climbing into the crumbling building, on the corner of Havelock Street and Central Drive, which has not been made properly secure.

At the time, Mr Clews was visiting the neighbouring Pine Lodge B&B on Havelock Street, and saw the youngsters getting inside the abandoned property next-door.

The former hotel, which fronts onto Central Drive, appears to have been left to decline and its condition is deteriorating each year. The building is close to a number of small, neat hotels and B&Bs which are continuing to represent the hospitality industry which once dominated the street. Now just a handful are left there.

One of those neighbouring hoteliers, Steve Savage, says the building is potentially “lethal” and is calling for something to be done about it.

Visitor Mr Clews, 42, from Stoke, said: “I stopped over at Blackpool at the weekend at the Pine Lodge B&B on Havelock Street and the hotel next to it was left abandoned on the corner with no windows left in it.

“Kids were smashing the inside, getting in from around the back and just moving the metal fencing there to get in. There’s nothing to stop them..

“It wasn’t just kids either – I saw a grown adult outside injecting himself with what was obviously drugs.

“My first thought was that I’d get home and I’d hear on the news that there’d been a big fire there. I didn’t expect to see that next to the hotel, I was quite shocked.”

Hotelier Steve Savage who runs the Shining Diamond, raised concerns about the property almost exactly two years ago.

He said: “No one knows who owns it at the moment, it seems to keep changing hands but nothing is done to tidy it up. The site is strewn with rubbish, it’s a horrible mess.

“It looks pretty lethal inside, I’d hate to think of young people messing about in there, it’s an accident waiting to happen.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that it’s been allowed to be left like that, especially in a holiday area.

“I’ve contacted my local councillors and they told me they’d forwarded my concerns to Blackpool Council.”