Guest Blog by Martin Woods
Southport is looking for a new direction as it is forced to move away from the previous shopping experience that used to bring in visitors. I have said before that I believe the town should re-purpose some excess retail units into high quality apartments to attract young professionals who would commute to Liverpool and Manchester. Along with that I think we need new entertainment for residents and to attract visitors for UK holidays.
Southport is fortunate to have a legacy of the Marine Lake and large open spaces nearby.
I can imagine a number of individual businesses built up in the town to cater for those people who want to try out and learn new sports, as individuals or as visiting groups. A cluster of adventure sport facilities could create Southport as the destination in the North West for sports experiences.
We know that younger generations with cash tend to want to buy experiences rather than things and we could have the places to create those experiences and memories.
Hotels could offer packages linking in with adventure sport businesses.
Indoor and outdoor rock climbing – there was a plan to build a “Clip and Climb” facility at Ocean Plaza which I think would have done well. No experience necessary, just clip your harness onto a safety rope system and climb without the need for another person. Blackpool now has one.
Cable tow wakeboarding/water skiing – the north end of the lake beyond the breakwater was always designated for water skiing but has barely been used for it in decades. The shallow water and landing stage there would be the perfect place to build a cable tow wakeboarding area. People can learn to ski without the need to own an expensive boat.
Zip lines across the lake and a high ropes course like a Go Ape. Imagine some huge zip lines from the roof of a hotel or from a purpose built tower, stretching over the water.
Water sports. We have a lake but there is currently nowhere that visiting groups at hotels or day trippers can go to hire kayaks, canoes, windsurfers, paddle boards. We do have SUP North who offer Paddle Board lessons but there could be so much more if the lake was opened up to other businesses.
Mountain bike jump track, indoor skate and bike facility and improved outdoor skate park.
The proposed surf lake would be an absolute gem.
Filling some of our remaining hotel capacity with group visitors and those wanting UK holidays with plenty to do as well as corporate events would be a good outcome as well as providing interesting things for locals to do and making those new up-market apartments more attractive.
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The sports adventure facilities sounds an innovative way to re-purpose an underused facility such as the Marine Lake. The popularity of the existing skate park is an indicator that adventure facilities would be well used. They would also complement the rides at Pleasureland, as well as keeping the hospitality sector buoyant in Southport. The facilities will also provide some jobs to replace those lost by the retail sector. The conversion of some redundant retail properties to housing for young professionals would ‘tidy up’ some of the town and probably provide some customers for the adventure sports facilities, as well helping to support the remaining shops in the town centre by having residents in walking distance.
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