Frustration as Southport's heritage is rotting away

THE heritage of the Town Centre dates from the late 18th century, a time when Southport was promoting itself as a high class seaside resort. However in recent years, Southport has been in decline. According to the 2001 census, Southport had a population of 90,336, making it the 11th most populous settlement in North West England, and with good rail links to Liverpool and a direct road link to Liverpool, Southport should be booming, but currently it isn't. Theoretically, Southport should be doing better, but despite the fact that it was once a popular and thriving Victorian holiday destination, and continued to be up until the mid 1970's, like with so most coastal other Towns within the UK, it had been struggling. Also contributing to this downward spiral has been the recent financial crisis and now Covid. Southport has had more than its fair share of shops closing down and has lost many of its tourist attractions over recent years. This has lead a huge drop in funding within the area and that in turn has lead to many of it's historic building suffering from long term decay. Many property owners have struggled to keep up with ever rising repair, restoration and refurbishment bills, also increasing the burden is the fact many art listed or within the conservation zones, pushing up the costs of maintenance. As a consequence many of the buildings are being turned into accommodation adding the problems. More and more we see small firms being pushed out, destroying the Towns uniqueness.

Sefton Council does have an Action Plan which covers 2 conservation areas, Lord Street and the Promenade, along with the Townscape Heritage project area that had received Heritage Lottery Fund dating back to 2018. Within the Plan there are over 146 listed buildings, with many of them at risk, including 8 in the defined within the Lord Street zone and the:- "Promenade Conservation Area Management Plan." For many residents and businesses, the fact that many of the area's historic buildings are suffering from neglect is adding to the problems about attracting people to the Town, and it isn't just the buildings, even the Town's many street features are being lost. For example, the Grade 2 Listed phone kiosks outside Southport Town Hall have failed to attract interest and have incurred vandalism, a point raised by Tony Dawson, to Sefton Council's Chief Executive and Director of Planning, back in 2016, and the issue that is still ongoing today.

On the face of it, the "Promenade Conservation Area Management Plan" looks good, and we are seeing funding put into some of the areas within the conservation zones, but locally, many are asking what are the long term plans? Sadly, many small businesses struggling, so we must find ways to support them and their landlords to maintain these premises, and to tackle the many that are presently unoccupied and falling into disrepair. This fact has in part been acknowledged within Sefton's own Action Plan that clearly states:- "Poor management and maintenance puts heritage at risk, and can lead to higher repair, restoration and refurbishment costs in the future."

A good example of this can be seen with Sefton Council's Cambridge Arcade which kept being overlooked for maintenance and now requires major, costly renovation work. Each time this happens we lose many local small businesses and also this lack of upkeep leads to even higher bills in the end. We will be asking Sefton for more information, as requested by our readers, as to what the Council intends to do to stop reoccurrences of the issues faced by the likes of Cambridge Arcade. The fact that such an iconic walkway between 2 of the most iconic buildings within Southport, is falling yet again into such a mess, not only puts our Towns heritage, at risk, but also reduces long term jobs and puts our Town's reputation at risk!

Please do email your thoughts on this to our email address:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com and also if you have any ideas on how we can help to stop the rot, please do let us know. Please indicate clearly on the email if you would like us to put your views to the Council on this matter. Due to local Elections we know that local Government is restricted, under:- 'purdah,' so you have until 6 May to get your emails to us, should you wish your question to be included.

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