The teams at Blackpool Fulfilling Lives and Blackpool and the Fylde Street Angels have joined forces to refresh and reopen the Princess Parade Crazy Golf course on the English seaside resort's North Shore. Work has recently started down on the seafront site with initial clean ups and litter picking having taken place.

Having responded to the call to help with the project earlier this year, I visited the course in May where I joined representatives from a number of agencies, including Blackpool Fulfilling Lives and Blackpool and the Fylde Street Angels, Blackpool Council and the Blackpool Civic Trust for a tour of the site. We also had a round to play-test the holes as they were and to look at ways to refurbish, repair and update the damaged holes and obstacles.

The minigolf project is helping homeless people in Blackpool by giving them the chance to work on the Crazy Golf course so it is playable and then staffing it for the season. It's a wonderful plan to give people the opportunity to receive work experience, while also bringing an historic, but disused, miniature golf course back to life.

While the game is booming, there are still a lot of derelict and abandoned courses around the UK.

It's great being a part of the project and I look forward to reporting on its progress.

You can also join the Blackpool Princess Parade Crazy Golf Facebook Group for updates.

Emily and I have been to the course a number of times over the years, but have never been able to have a game on it. We can't wait to play on the course when it reopens. You can see photos of the course from my visit in May in my North Shore Crazy Golf course in Blackpool blog post.

Richard Gottfried blogs about minigolf at The Ham and Egger Files. He's also the Curator of the Crazy Golf Museum and author of The Minigolfer's Guide to Marketing.

The views expressed in this blog are solely the views of the writer and do not represent the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF), Minigolfnews.com or any other organization that the writer may be associated with unless expressly stated in the blog.