AI automation in Fleetwood and Poulton-le-Fylde.
Wyre had 4,110 businesses in 2026, and 89.3% of them employ fewer than ten people.Source [1] Construction made up 7.1% of Wyre's 35,000 employee jobs in 2024, against 5.0% across Great Britain. Manufacturing made up 10.0%, and health and social work 17.1%.Source [1]
We cover all 54 towns and villages in the district. Most of what we build is delivered remotely, so the practical question is not how far you are from us. It is whether we understand the way your trade actually works. We will come out if it helps.
Written by Sami (Sam) Swain. Local facts checked 9 October 2026.
What is happening in Wyre
Where the work is
- Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone in Thornton-Cleveleys covers 138 hectares and hosts more than 40 companies, including polymer maker Victrex and AGC Chemicals Europe.Source [2]
- Project Neptune at Fleetwood Dock is a 42,000 sq ft food processing building with a new fish auction hall. Its first tenants were due in early 2024.Source [3]
- Fox Group's new Fox Jackson Ports business bought Fleetwood port from Associated British Ports in 2024.Source [4]
Support for businesses
- Wyre Council's Business Growth Grant has paid 50% of eligible costs, from £2,000 to £5,000, for micro and small firms with a Wyre postcode. It covers equipment, premises improvements, training, faster broadband and marketing. Round 2 grants must be spent by 28 February 2027. The council's page did not say on 9 October 2026 whether a new round was open.Source [5]
- To apply, a business must be registered with Wyred Up, the free business network the council set up in 2008.Source [5]Source [6]
- Wyred Up ran a 2026 series of practical workshops, starting in January at the Civic Centre in Poulton-le-Fylde.Source [7]
Getting around
- The A585 Windy Harbour to Skippool bypass, a three mile dual carriageway, opened in December 2023. It carries traffic between Fleetwood, Thornton Cleveleys and the M55.Source [8]
- Hillhouse is close to the M55 and M6.Source [2]
Industries that matter in Wyre
These sectors employ a bigger share of people here than they do across Great Britain, so they are where automation usually earns its keep first.
Construction and trades
Construction is 7.1% of employee jobs against 5.0% in Great Britain.Source [1]
AI for construction and tradesCare providers
Health and social work is 17.1% of employee jobs against 14.2%.Source [1]
AI for careManufacturing and engineering
Manufacturing is 10.0% of employee jobs against 7.3%.Source [1]
AI for manufacturingHospitality and tourism
Accommodation and food is 10.0% of employee jobs against 7.8%.Source [1]
AI for hospitalityHelp across Lancashire
- Boost is Lancashire's business growth hub. Its Business Support Helpdesk on 0800 488 0057 is open to every Lancashire business and to anyone planning to start one. Growth Lancashire runs the helpdesk on Boost's behalf.Source [9]
- Made Smarter North West helps small and medium manufacturing and engineering firms adopt digital technology. Firms with 249 staff or fewer and a turnover under £36 million, or a balance sheet under £18 million, can apply. It offers up to 50% match funding to a maximum of £20,000 for equipment and specialist advice, a leadership programme and funded digital internships worth up to £4,035. Boost is one of its delivery partners.Source [10]Source [11] Read our Made Smarter North West guide
- The Lancashire Combined County Authority's Growth Plan, published in October 2025, names digital and artificial intelligence as one of five priority sectors for the county.Source [12]Source [13]
Grants and funded training that are open now are on our funding page.
Main towns in Wyre
Fleetwood
Town, population 26,232, FY7
Lofthouse of Fleetwood, maker of Fisherman's Friend lozenges, is the town's primary employer. Fish processing, port operations and light industry remain after the deep-sea fishing collapse and the closure of ICI Hillhouse.
Poulton-le-Fylde
Town, population 18,115, FY6
Market town whose business base centres on Poulton Industrial Estate.
Garstang
Town, population 4,428, PR3
Declared itself the world's first Fairtrade Town in April 2000. Its Thursday market dates back to the early 1300s.
Preesall
Town, population 5,694, FY6
Former salt-mining town. Subsidence closed the mines in 1931 and created the water-filled 'Flashes', while ICI continued brine pumping into the 1980s.
Knott End-on-Sea
Village, population 5,657, FY6
A three-minute ferry crossing links the village to Fleetwood across the Wyre estuary. It also has a golf club and county library.
Thornton
Town, FY5
Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone, the 138 hectare former ICI chemical and salt works site, now hosts more than 40 companies including Victrex and AGC Chemicals Europe.
Villages and smaller places we also cover
These are covered on the same terms. They are listed here rather than given a page each, because a page that only restates the district page helps nobody.
Barnacre
Rural, hilly parish area containing the ruins of Greenhalgh Castle.
Bilsborrow
A6 and Lancaster Canal village with a themed thatched hamlet of restaurant, hotel and tavern. A large paper mill operated at Matshead in the 1950s.
Bleasdale
Bronze Age Bleasdale Circle earthwork sits within the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Walking and cycling tourism is the main draw.
Bonds
Part of Barnacre-with-Bonds parish, forming a continuous built-up area with Garstang.
Bowgreave
Home to Garstang Community Academy and an eighteen-hole golf course adjoining a Best Western hotel.
Brock
Hamlet on the River Brock in Claughton-on-Brock parish beside the A6, near Brock Bottom and the Fitzherbert-Brockholes estate
Burn Naze
Residential area of Thornton-Cleveleys beside the former ICI Hillhouse chemical works.
Cabus
Sits on the A6 corridor 12 miles north of Preston, served by three Stagecoach routes to Preston, Lancaster, Morecambe and Blackpool.
Calder Vale
Quaker-founded model village whose Lappet Mill, built in 1835 and powered by the River Calder, still operates as a cotton mill.
Carleton
Carleton Crematorium and Cemetery, opened in 1935, serves the wider Fylde coast.
Catterall
United Utilities' Franklaw Water Treatment Works and Collinson Plc, manufacturer of agricultural and industrial buildings, are the two main employers.
Churchtown
St Helen's Church, Grade I listed and once known as the 'Cathedral of the Fylde', with a lepers' window and a Black Plague grave marker.
Claughton-on-Brock
The Fitzherbert-Brockholes family's agricultural estate of 16 farms dates back to 1395 and still shapes the local economy.
Cleveleys
Seaside town forming the western half of the Thornton-Cleveleys conurbation.
Dolphinholme
Thomas Hinde's 1795 worsted mill made the lower village among the first in the UK to have gas lighting, in 1811. The mill is now private housing.
Eagland Hill
Remote mossland community within Pilling civil parish.
Forton
Forton Services, operated by Moto between junctions 32 and 33 of the M6, is the parish's best-known landmark and employer.
Great Eccleston
Agricultural village with a monthly farmers' market, a weekly general market and a two-day July agricultural show drawing up to 40,000 people.
Hambleton
Rural village with little local employment. Most working residents commute to Preston, Lancaster and Blackpool.
Hardhorn
Paired with Poulton in the historic Hardhorn with Newton area, now the Hardhorn ward.
Hollins Lane
Village in Forton parish on the West Coast Main Line corridor. Has a post office, place of worship and the New Holly pub.
Inskip
MOD Inskip, a tri-service military communications centre on the former RNAS airfield HMS Nightjar, has four radio masts 600 ft high.
Kirkland
Riverside parish containing Churchtown, midway between Preston and Lancaster.
Little Thornton
Myerscough
Myerscough College, a land-based and agricultural college, is the dominant institution.
Nateby
Small commuter village whose railway station closed in 1930 and post office in 2000.
Nether Wyresdale
Parish containing Scorton, Street and part of Dolphinholme, with St Peter's Church, Scorton by Lancaster architects Paley and Austin.
Norcross
Tomlinson House on Norcross Lane is a long-established government office site used by the DWP and Defence Business Services.
Oakenclough
Out Rawcliffe
The medieval Rawcliffe Hall now serves as a bar and function room at Rawcliffe Hall Holiday Park.
Pilling
Extensive mossland parish covering 3,387 hectares on the southern corner of Morecambe Bay, with Pilling Sands on its doorstep.
Ratten Row
One of only two settlements in Upper Rawcliffe-with-Tarnacre parish alongside St Michael's on Wyre. Farm shop and tea room economy.
Rossall
Rossall School, a coeducational independent day and boarding school founded in 1844, is the area's most prominent institution.
Scorton
Former cotton mill and railway village, now events-led with the annual Scorton Steam show and the Lancashire Game and Country Festival. Wyresdale Park is a wedding venue.
Scronkey
Constituent locality of Pilling civil parish.
Shireshead
Hamlet in Forton parish with two churches, St James' of 1887-90 and the older St Paul's of 1805 on Stoney Lane
Skippool
Historic creek and former port on the west bank of the River Wyre at Thornton. Skippool Creek moorings and marine businesses.
Sowerby
Paired with Inskip in the Inskip-with-Sowerby civil parish.
St Michael's on Wyre
Grade I listed St Michael's Church, founded before 640 AD with a 14th century nave and 16th century tower, is the village focal point.
Stake Pool
Locality within Pilling parish, home to the Elletson Arms.
Stalmine
Small A588 village with a primary school, the Seven Stars pub and a shop and post office.
Stanah
Headquarters of Wyre Estuary Country Park, on the western bank of the River Wyre.
Staynall
Paired with Stalmine in the Stalmine-with-Staynall civil parish.
Street
Hamlet within Nether Wyresdale parish between the River Wyre and Grizedale Brook.
Trunnah
Old core of Thornton around Trunnah Road, site of the Grade II listed Trunnah Farmhouse of 1769
Upper Rawcliffe-with-Tarnacre
Parish containing St Michael's on Wyre on the north bank of the river.
Whiteholme
One of the four constituent settlements of Carleton alongside Great Carleton, Little Carleton and Norcross.
Winmarleigh
Duchy of Lancaster estate village. Winmarleigh Hall is now an outdoor education centre run by NST Travel Group, and ten estate farms were offered to tenants in 2011.
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Sources
We opened and read every source below on 9 October 2026. If one has changed since, the source is right and this page is out of date, so please tell us.
- 1. ONS via Nomis, Labour market profile, Wyre (BRES 2024 employee jobs, UK Business Counts 2026).
- 2. Invest in Lancashire, Hillhouse Enterprise Zone.
- 3. Wyre Council, Project Neptune nets first tenants at Fleetwood's new Food and Fish Processing Park, 21 December 2023.
- 4. Wyre Council, New future of Fleetwood Port with Fox Group deal, 13 March 2024.
- 5. Wyre Council, Business Growth Grant, pre expression of interest information.
- 6. Wyre Council, Wyred Up, Wyre's business support network, is back.
- 7. Garstang Town Council, republishing Wyre Council, Boost your business in 2026, join Wyred Up's How to Attract More Customers event.
- 8. National Highways, A585 Windy Harbour to Skippool.
- 9. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Business Support Helpdesk.
- 10. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, North West.
- 11. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, in my region.
- 12. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan maps over £20bn investment opportunity, 10 October 2025.
- 13. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan, sector priority 3, digital and AI, October 2025.