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Blackpool Gazette
  • 04/01/2025
A round up of the top stories from across Lancashire.
Transcript
00:00Hello my name is Luke Patrick I'm a reporter for the Lancashire Post and the
00:04Blackpool Gazette. Here is a daily bulletin. Blackpool's Aberdeen Street
00:10market food hall reduces opening times for 2025. The market's food hall will now
00:16be closed on Mondays but will remain open Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. till 10
00:21p.m. The council has not said what prompted the cut back in opening hours
00:25and whether it is permanent or just for the resort's winter season. But it's
00:30understood the cutback is due to low demand for the market's eateries on
00:33Mondays, typically the quietest day of the week for many businesses. Grade 2
00:40listed former Blackpool Synagogue for sale and here is a surprising guide
00:44price. The Blackpool United Hebrew Congregation in Leamington Road was a
00:50former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue built in 1916 and opened by
00:55Lord Rothschild. In 2012 the synagogue was closed due to falling
01:01congregation numbers and the building was deconsecrated and sold. In
01:052016 it was resold this time at auction for £100,000 with plans to convert it
01:11into apartments. But the building still stands largely untouched and is again being
01:15offered for auction, this time with a guide price of £70,000. Lancashire
01:21mum-of-seven Laura Birchall goes viral on TikTok with council
01:25estate's comedy sketches. Single mum Laura Birchall, 34 from Moor Road in
01:29Chorley, decided to take the power back from her haters by sending herself up on
01:33the likes of TikTok and Facebook. Her comedy sketches, which she only started
01:39doing two weeks ago, have already garnered a large fan base with 12,000
01:44TikTok followers and 6,000 on Facebook. Her skits show her hilariously mocking
01:50the assumption that all council estate mums party all day from the benefits
01:54they receive. Heartbreaking update over James Whale radio and CBB start loved by
02:02listeners to Lancashire's Red Rose Radio. A legendary broadcaster who became a
02:07favourite of listeners to Red Rose Radio in the 80s has issued a heartbreaking
02:12update over his health. James Whale pioneered the late-night radio phoning
02:18during the 1970s, rising to fame with the James Whale radio show, which was
02:22simulcast to Radio Air and Red Rose Radio in the late 80s. On the show he was
02:28known for disagreeing with callers, often arguing with them and cutting them off.
02:32In 2000 he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and in 2006 he launched the James
02:37Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer to fund research and raise awareness of the
02:41disease. The fund became Kidney Cancer UK in 2016 and in August 2020 Whale
02:47revealed that his cancer had spread to his spine, brain and lungs. This Christmas
02:52his health has taken a turn for the worst with him spending Christmas Day in
02:55intensive care and commenting that it could be his last.