A seaside resort that was once bustling with tourists has become a ghost town, locals say.
Residents in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire have slammed their Tory council for for failing to support small businesses. The area is split into two towns - Lytham and neighbouring St Annes - and householders believe the two settlements are different in terms of economy and geography.
lan, who owns Ducks Nuts Tapas bar in St Annes, said: "I believe that the council, Fylde Borough Council, do nothing for business in St Annes. Why don't they celebrate new businesses and try and help new businesses?"
In just two months, 12 new businesses have had to shut their doors in St Anne's alone, reports Lancs Live. This includes Squire men's shop, Shoe Zone, Firepit and a furniture shop.
Lytham St Anne's is minutes away from the bright lights of Blackpool, which relies heavily on tourism. But Alan is concerned Blackpool and St Annes, which is under control of Fylde Borough Council, doesn't get enough investment.
He added: "They [the council] spend all of their money to help Lytham and very little help in St Annes. Walking around the high street and it's a totally different atmosphere to St Annes and it's not because they've got better shops there.
"It's full of charity shops, there's not one single bank in Lytham, there's no banks. We've got three banks left and a building society.
"Lytham has more charity shops and less everything else. It also has a few expensive eateries that aren't really any good. There's nothing extra that Lytham has to bring people in."
Alan alluded to the fact that many visitors take a trip to the nearby beach, but are not encouraged to walk into the town to spend their money. This sentiment is echoed by the ladies behind Margaret's Florists on Wood Street.
Ann believes that there should be more awareness of businesses in St Annes and more support for the new ones opening up. She was complimentary of the parking in the town, saying that there's plenty of spaces that now offer motorists the ability to park for 90 minutes, but this isn't doing enough.
A spokesperson for Fylde Borough Council said: "Fylde Council values all of our businesses and the contributions they make to the local economy, which is why we have a dedicated Business Engagement/Town Centres Officer in post to support all businesses across the Fylde Borough. We have also committed over 20 per cent of our total UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocation to supporting businesses across Fylde, with new projects recently starting including support to help any businesses to reduce their energy costs and their climate footprint.
"A project due to go live in June is a town centre footfall monitoring project to better understand the peaks and troughs of shoppers and visitors to our key town centres of St Annes, Kirkham and Lytham, this will help identify visitor footfall around the towns and the best opportunities to hold events that will attract new and returning visitors."
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