Massive Renovations Underway: From Bootle Strand to Ainsdale Gateway

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Positive start to 2026 as Cabinet agrees major update on Ainsdale Gateway

Sefton Council’s Cabinet approved a full set of agenda items at its January meeting seeing major progress across regeneration, climate action, active travel and community services.

You can use this link to watch the webcast of the whole meetingbut here are some of the headlines from the meeting 

Driving Green Growth & Regeneration  

  • We’ve secured more than £6 million of funding through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to save carbon emissions and make our buildings greener with more renewable energy such as solar panels and air source heat pumps. 

  • We’ve adopted the Bootle Area Action Plan, which is the first of its kind and sets out a plan for the future that will bring investment and improve the lives of people living and working in Bootle. We haven’t just waited for the plan to be completed we are already on with major regeneration work at the Bootle Strand. 
    Find out more about the  Bootle Area Action Plan

  • We agreed two new supplementary planning documents relating to affordable and supported homes and children’s residential care and children’s supported accommodation. This will help us ensure affordable homes go to those who need them and that plans for children’s homes are carefully considered in line with the new guidance as we know this type of application is sensitive for residents.  

Protecting and Restoring Nature  

We’ve approved theLiverpool City Region Local Nature Recovery Strategy- this is a major green win which maps priority habitats, sets biodiversity goals and guides future nature restoration across the region, including Sefton.This means we can focus our efforts more effectively and ensure money from developments stays within the borough, helping nature recovery and improving access to green spaces. With 22 miles of coastline, a red squirrel population and plants you won’t find anywhere else in the country is important we protect this for future generations.  

You can find out more about the Liverpool City Region Local Nature Recovery Strategy here.


Transforming Sefton’s Coastline  

You may have already read the news about ambitious plans to transform the Ainsdale gateway .

The Cabinet’s decision means

  • we are close to agreeing a lease with a new owner for The Sands pub (watch out for more news soon).

  • we will start demolishing Toad Hall to make way for new off-beach parking (subject to planning permission).

  • we’ll begin testing the market to see what investment we could get to transform the derelict Pontins site into a world-class visitor attraction.  

We’re all fed up of seeing this part of the borough fenced off, looking tired and we’re well on the way to seeing this area transformed. 

Enabling Active Travel for a Greener Borough  

This is a huge boost for everyday walking, wheeling and cycling as we agreed to adopt the Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP). 

The plan identifies priority routes, where we can make junctions safer, improves safety for school journeys and strengthens links between neighbourhoods, town centres and workplaces.

So many of the journeys made by car are short enough that they could be made by walking or cycling – we know it’s not for everyone but it’s important people have safe alternatives to travelling by car – it's better for the environment and our health. 

Being more transparent with our maintenance schedules 

A big piece or work taking place at the moment is the digitisation all the assets and land we own. This will mean we can share more information online about things like how and when litter bins will be emptied, when grassed areas will be cut and when grids and gulleys will be cleared.

We get lots of queries about these and this project will see all of this information available to you at the click of a button. 

This is the first step so will be some time before that is ready but don’t forget some of that is already there – we have had a lot of cold weather recently and all the information on our gritting routes is already available online. 

Council tax reduction scheme 

Equally important is ensuring those that need financial support get it. Our Council Tax Reduction Scheme for the year means those on low incomes have to pay little or no council tax. 
More information and details of eligibility can be found here. 

Other items agreed... 

We had an update on the council finances, which show how we are managing what is a really challenging time for local government. We are working hard to bring down the forecast overspend of £11 million. This sounds a lot but is largely due to our demand led services of adult social care and children’s social care. 

And we agreed our council meeting dates for the year 2026-27. 

You can find out more about on these items and watch the meeting webcast here.