So Travelodge are taking over the historic Grade-II Clifton Hotel. Well, I suppose it could be worse. At least it isn’t another nightclub. But it shows how Blackpool is changing. Last night on Northwest Tonight I saw a hotelier saying he had only taken £200 last month – and was selling up. I’ve written before about how tourists are becoming more demanding – and that ‘lifts to all floors’ and ‘tea and coffee facilities in all rooms’ is no longer enough. I don’t know enough about that particular hotel to judge what has been the problem there – but for many hotels, it is the law of diminishing returns.

Maybe what Blackpool needs now is a Malmaison or a Hotel du Vin! And I’m not being elitist or snobbish when I say that. I’ve always said that Blackpool needs to make more of its ‘heritage appeal’. At a time when people are staying for shorter periods, we need to get them to spend more money when they are here. I’m sure many of us have enjoyed excellent meals at the Courtfield restaurant at the college – think what an opportunity it would be for those trainees to try their hand in a top chain such as Malmaison.

Blackpool is changing under the Council, and is changing for the better, but Labour are doing all they can to frustrate. Driving home the other day, I thought “Uncle Tom’s Cabins looks a bit quiet – looks shut to me”. My hunch turned out, sadly, to be right. Not that it doesn’t do the business – you need only drive past on a summer’s day to see the hordes sitting outside.

If we’re to capitalise on our heritage, we need to protect that heritage. Do we really want future generations to wonder why there’s a tram stop called Uncle Tom’s Cabin opposite what has become a Travelodge? Or will there even be a tram network?