Sefton Council urged to provide clarity on Southport Pier repairs and re-opening

The issue of Southport Pier will take centre stage at Thursday’s Full Council Meeting at Southport Town Hall with at least two motions about the Pier up for debate and many formal questions tabled.
    
 Opposition leader Cllr John Pugh (LD) believes that the time has come for a bit of clarity. 
   
   

 “ Sefton Council has said a lot about its commitment to the Pier and its desire to see it re-open and that’s good. What worries opposition councillors is that there is no clear word on where the money is coming for the repairs or what the timescale is for re-opening it.
      We will be hoping on Thursday for some answers there. Vague chat about asking other stakeholders including central government to chip in won’t impress. 
      
      The council needs to have a financial package and a timetable in place soon. Members won’t be happy to hear that Council that found £32M overnight to buy the loss making shopping centre in Bootle can’t find the resource to protect this historic asset.
   

 The big long term fear though is that residents will be left dangling in hope til we get past the General Election’ .
    
       Mystery still surrounds the status and contents of the full structural survey,conducted by civil engineers,Thomasons, that has not yet been put into the public domain.
    
      “It would be good to anticipate a programme of works and understand whether it is practical to do the work in phases, keeping part of the Pier open part of the time. Figures for plank repairs from consultants over the last five years have fluctuated widely with anything between 1% and 100% of planks claimed to be needing replacement. Either way we need some explanations and hopefully Sefton Council will provide some this Thursday.”