Notes from the North: Maternity theatres close in Blackpool, Greens in Calderdale speak out
All the highlights from our exclusive reporting as part of The Lead North, including the latest from Blackpool Victoria Hospital and calls from the Greens in Calderdale
Blackpool Victoria Hospital has found its way into the national news on a regular basis over the last month - and with good reason.
In recent months, the Vic has been named as one of the country’s worst hospitals, while its maternity and neonatal services will be examined as part of a national investigation into “failures” at a string of NHS trusts.
It has suffered a series of damaging headlines - but most of those stories were in The Blackpool Lead long before they reached the legacy media.
The latest of those headlines - coming to a national title near you in January 2026 - is in today’s briefing on the north.
Elsewhere, the Greens in Calderdale are pushing for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped, which seems more likely to happen with every passing day.
And we’ve looked at why child poverty - the subject of The Lead’s ongoing campaign - is felt most keenly in Lancashire.
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Each week on The Lead our senior editor for The Lead North, Luke Beardsworth, highlights some of the stories we’ve been breaking exclusively, covering extensively and staying the course on to ensure communities have access to verified independent journalism. If you have any stories you think we should be covering, or tip-offs, you can contact luke@thelead.uk
Women and babies have been at risk of death by electrocution in Vic’s maternity theatres
Women and babies being operated on at one of Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s two maternity theatres have been at risk of death by “electrocution and catastrophic equipment failure”, it can today be revealed.
The facility “remains unsafe for clinical use due to unresolved electrical and mechanical infrastructure risks”, with basic electrical safety protection missing, hospital documents obtained by The Blackpool Lead show.
Bosses at the Vic, in Whinney Heys Road, have closed the theatre and are now poised to spend more than £250,000 putting the issue right - though that could take months.
Calderdale Greens chief urges Reeves to ditch two-child benefit cap to help tackle poverty
The leader of Calderdale’s Green Party has urged the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to end the injustice of the two-child benefit cap in her Budget.
Cllr Martin Hey says the policy, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children, is ‘cruel’ and any partial rollback will trigger further injustice.
And Cllr Hey told The Calderdale Lead that beyond the scrapping of the two-child cap - which is the Green’s first priority - there are a number of other measures the Chancellor must take when she presents her Budget on November 26.
Children living in poverty in Lancashire are starting life ‘with both legs tied together’
Pendle in the east of the county has the highest national rates of child poverty.
Out of 317 local authorities, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Burnley all feature high on the list with 44 per cent or more of children coming from families struggling to make ends meet.
A survey conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions showed nearly half of the 9,190 children in Pendle were in low income households.
In stark contrast the poverty levels in the town were eight times that of Richmond Upon Thames.
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