Can run-down Blackpool turn itself around?

TO SEE THE best and worst of Blackpool, take a ride on its Ferris wheel. On the way up, marvel at the miles of golden beaches; and at the horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping along the promenade, Blackpool Tower at one end, a giant rollercoaster (once the world’s tallest) at the other. Coming down, gaze at a brutalist haystack jutting out from the skyline—in fact an abandoned police station—and row after row of run-down terraced houses.

The seaside town in north-west England, home to around 140,000 people, has long been a place of contrasts. As Britain’s most popular coastal resort, Blackpool brings joy to millions. Yet it is also a repository of despair, at the bottom of national rankings on a host of measures. Blackpool contains eight of England’s ten most deprived wards. It has a lower healthy-life expectancy than Angola. The share of its children in local-authority care is the highest in the country. Its 16-year-olds’ exam results are among the worst in England.