BLUNT-spoken Pleasure Beach manager Jim 'JR' Rowland and the resort's new lifeboat house have been honoured in this year's Keep Blackpool Tidy awards.

They won the two premier prizes at the annual Town Hall ceremony on Monday (March 8) night.

Funny Girls, Yates's Wine Lodge and the Castle Casino were among other attractions honoured. Awards also went to Blackpool BMW dealer Derek Woodman, youth worker Mike Leeming, former KBT chairman Philip Dunne, jeweller H Samuel and Blackpool Sixth Form College.

Blackpool RNLI received the trophy for its striking new lifeboat house on Central Promenade where the cup will be displayed. The station was built after almost £660,000 was raised from the public.

'JR', star of a TV fly-on-the-wall documentary, heads the team responsible for the cleanliness of the Pleasure Beach grounds.

New KBT chairman Peter Wood said the highlight of the year had been Blackpool's third successive victory in the North West in Bloom contest, which is now marked by signs on main roads into the resort.

Councillor Wood told guests: "The winners should be congratulated for all the work they do, going out there getting their hands dirty and making Blackpool a better place."

Deputy mayor Don Clapham, who made the presentations, told award winners their efforts showed the pride they had in their premises.

"It really does help us to keep Blackpool at the forefront of the tourism industry at a time when we see so much negative publicity."

Giving the vote of thanks, KBT's Pat Nasser said: "Like many seaside towns in the past 20 years, Blackpool did slip - probably due to the increased competition from overseas. But in the past three years it has turned a corner."

Citations were read by George Frampton.

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