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26th Oct 2015

Jeremy Clarkson labels British seaside town ‘cesspit of awfulness and disease’

Simon Lloyd

Former Top Gear presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, has caused controversy with his description of Lancashire seaside town, Blackpool.

Claiming that a combination of drunks, drug addicts and Syrian refugees has turned the resort into a ‘cesspit of awfulness and disease’, Clarkson writes in his weekly column for The Sunday Times that the solution to the town’s problems would be to turn it into a gas fracking centre.

Believing the town should make the most of its ‘geological good fortune’, Clarkson appears bemused that anti-frackers aren’t exploiting the fact that the town sits on ‘rocks full of gas’.

BLACKPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 01: Holidaymakers sit on the beach next to the refurbished Blackpool Tower on September 1, 2011 in Blackpool, England. After a 20million GBP refurbishment the iconic seaside Blackpool Tower opened today to the general public. The observation deck at the top of the tower becomes the Blackpool Tower Eye and features a skywalk made of glass overlooking the sea and the promenade. The opening is part of Blackpool's 250million GBP regeneration project. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

But it’s his description of some of the town’s inhabitants that has raised eyebrows.

Describing some of the people living there as ‘not what you’d call house-proud’, he then states that most were ‘enthusiastic users of heroin or Stella Artois.’

In relation to refugees that have arrived in the town, Clarkson writes: “You couldn’t help thinking: ‘How bad was your life in Syria for this to be better.”