Southport’s Conservative councillors are calling on Sefton Council to take action and ask the public how they want to see Southport’s once golden sands managed.
Over many years, large swathes of Southport beach have become overgrown and, in many places, unusable as a tourist beach. Conservatives in Southport are now urging Sefton Council to put forward proposals to the public, via a consultation, on how one of our most important natural assets should be managed.
Mike Prendergast, Conservative Group Leader on Sefton Council said, “For many years, we’ve all seen how overgrown Southport beach has become. In many places it is simply unusable as a tourist beach.”
“A huge part of our seaside tourism offering is the fact we have a beach, but that is quickly disappearing. With our Pier closed as well, our coast, which should be one of our best assets, is not able to provide the pull to bring visitors in that it once did.”
“The policy in place at the moment by the current Labour administration ,seems to be let nature take its course. I think it’s time we had a change in that policy and the start of that process should be asking Southport residents, local businesses and visitors what they think through a public consultation.”
“Our preference would be for the area from Weld Road roundabout to the Pier to be an area formally designated as a leisure/amenity beach and maintained as such. This could be one of the options put to the public.”
“Sefton Council is in the middle of asking for the views of local people about their economic strategy for the next 10 years. Southport beach must form part of that strategy, it’s not enough to say it’s all down to natural processes so just let the beach become completely overgrown.”
“At the next council meeting, we will be calling for Sefton Council to ask local people how they want to see our beach managed, if they are confident in their policies they have nothing to fear asking the public what they think.”
“My own opinion is that the current beach management policy needs to change, like so many things about Sefton Council. Southport is a great place to live, work and visit with so much potential and with the right policies and management, could be even better.”