From the "comedy carpet" page linked above:-

"The carpet, which is being designed by Gordon Young, has cost £14 million to build. Young is responsible for the surroundings for Eric Morecambe's statue, which has become one of Blackpool's most popular tourist attractions."

Does this mean Blackpool has already started importing/stealing artwork from other places? Last time I looked, Eric Morecambe's statue was still in MORECAMBE!

Mudcat thread Who'll Go To Morecambe? /The Last Resort and Ron Baxter's parody are not (sadly) the originators of the Morecambe/Last Resort connection - try Googling those three words for some interesting reflections on Morecambe in particular and the problems of regenerating seaside towns in general.

No mention among the excellent photographs in the Blackpool blog of the current traffic chaos (happily passed on from Fleetwood!) caused by tramway reconstruction along the front. They did things differently in the old days:-

"Once the GWR was in control of the whole line from London to Penzance, it set about converting the remaining broad-gauge tracks. The last broad-gauge service left Paddington station on Friday, 20 May 1892; the following Monday, trains from Penzance were operated by standard-gauge locomotives." (Wikipedia)

Ross