No Invite for Southport Councillors to Events Programme Launch

There is exciting news this week that the Council is hosting an event at the Grand, Lord St to launch a new events programme for Southport       described as “ a breathtaking year of cultural events “, “ “telling the world about why Southport should be on everyone’s visit list”.  It is designated in the invitation by the organisers, Invest Sefton, as a time for partners and friends to “ come together”- to understand “ how they can get involved to help make this the most exciting year in Southport for a long time.”  

Businesses, civic organisations, charities and many others will attend to find out how they can help and boost the events programme and work to a common aim.

One bizarre aspect of this though is that Sefton Council has not included a single one of its 21 elected Southport councillors on the invite list.  Worse still none of them have even been officially informed about it and only found out accidentally through memberships of other bodies. 

Only two councillors have been invited to attend - the Council Leader and Deputy- both from Bootle.

Opposition leader in Sefton, Liberal Democrat councillor, John Pugh, describes this sadly all too typical of how Sefton is being run. 

 “I frankly have no liking for swanky events, but to have an event for the benefit of Southport, to try to get people together, to get behind a programme and then leave out ALL the people Southport has elected, and not even tell them about it, is downright weird. We need every hand to the pump these days backing the town. Times are tough.

I can’t even say the exclusion is 'party political'. No Southport Labour councillor is on the list or trusted to attend !  

Realistically, I am sure every Southport councillor of every political persuasion is actually keen on making 2026 a great year for Southport and would prefer to be engaged rather than excluded, but Sefton seems to prefer exclusion. It is not as though there has been any private briefing or meeting prepared or planned for Southport councillors without the canapés and fuss. We’re to be kept out of the loop.   

 I do not believe there is a Council in the country that tries to hide so much from the people the community elect.  It’s counter-productive control behaviour when we all have the same objective. It’s quite sad really !  This week's event is titled “Elegantly Eccentric” but Sefton’s treatment of Southport councillors is 'Seriously Strange'. "