The way that the local community has responded since the Southport tragedy has shown ‘the best of Southport and the wider Sefton borough at the most difficult of times’.
Sefton Council Chief Executive Phil Porter said the way that people have shown kindness and togetherness to all those left devastated by the atrocity ‘should not be forgotten’.
He has compiled a comprehensive account of part of the wide-ranging response to both the tragedy of 29th July 2024 as well as the racist riots the following day.
Details were also shared about how support is continuing, and will continue to be delivered, to help those whose lives have been impacted emotionally.
The long-term ambition for the recovery of Southport as a town have also been outlined, including how additional government funding has been used towards this.
It includes the progression of the £10 million transformation of the Town Hall Gardens on Lord Street in Southport into a child focussed, family friendly space that will be ‘a gift to the Town’ as a thank you for the love and compassion shown to the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie by the Southport community.
In his report, Sefton Council Chief Executive Phil Porter wrote:
“In every aspect of response to the unimaginable events of July 2024, Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King, and Elsie Dot Stancombe will remain at the forefront of minds.
“The families and all of those affected by these tragic events have been, and will remain, at the heart of how we have responded and how we continue to seek to recover.
“The tragic events of 29th July 2024 will never be forgotten. However, the way community, partners and Council have responded has shown ‘the best’ of Southport and the wider Sefton borough at the most difficult of times should also not be forgotten.
“Sefton Council (officers and councillors), partners, and the community have led and will continue to lead through their core services with a focus on helping children and families heal, creating safer and more united communities and assisting businesses to recover economically.
“A heartfelt thanks goes to all those who helped in any way over the last 16 months and everything we have done and everything that we will do will be done with the families and victims at the heart. We are guided by them and their needs.”
The report, and the funding that supports it, will go before councillors on Sefton Council’s Cabinet this Thursday (5th February 2026).
The document represents a significant step in addressing the emotional, social, and economic impacts of the tragedies, while also planning for a stronger future for Southport.
Included within it is an update on the £10m Town Hall Gardens Project.
In September a one-month engagement process began seeking the public’s views as to the proposals. The feedback from this exercise will feed into the design phase which will be followed by a longer and more in-depth consultation process.
Lady Marina Dalglish has been appointed as independent chair of the project board overseeing the design and delivery of this project.
Also mentioned was how on the 29th July 2025 the Southport community acknowledged the events of what happened one year earlier with a poignant three minute’s silence held in front of the Atkinson.
The Southport faith community along with the Welcome Spaces provided 29 locations across Southport on the day for people to attend for quiet reflection, or for company.
The Southport Inquiry, a public inquiry into the murders of the three girls and those who were attacked and wounded, began on 8th July 2025 before concluding on 6th November 2025.
The report on phase 1 will be completed in early 2026.
In January, Robin Simcox the Commissioner for Countering Extremism visited Sefton and met with senior leaders as well as partners and operational staff to understand the local issues related to extremism.
In April Lord Anderson, the interim independent commissioner for Prevent, visited Sefton as part of a 2-day visit to the North West.
Lucy Easthope, the UK’s number 1 disaster recovery expert has supported Sefton throughout this time, providing advice sessions for Cabinet and the Council’s Executive Leadership Team, the business community, Headteachers, other partners and the Recovery Team.
Psychological support has been provided to a number of people.
The original psychological support plan (Cheshire & Merseyside ICB Recovery Plan) involved increasing existing psychological provision and creating suitable pathways to meet initial demand as well as flexibility to meet spikes in demand.
This support offer has been focused on providing support to those children and families directly involved and the wider public affected.
The Southport Recovery Voluntary Community and Faith programme co-ordinated by Sefton CVS was established to oversee a broad programme spanning education, youth support, community outreach, mental health, cohesion, safety, and sector capacity.
The Children Support and Education Sub-Group was set up in recognition that that response to the tragic events of 29th July 2024 needed to be centred around the children and families of Southport. It was recognised that the event would have both immediate and long term affects which would require support. The original approach had four key areas of focus: Recognising the medium to long term impact it was expected that there would be an increase in referrals to Children’s social care in both numbers and complexity. Therefore, additional resource was placed within the Sefton Family Advice and Support Team (FAST)/ Children Help and Advice Team (CHAT).
The Business & Economy Subgroup focused on:
Short term response being implemented, focused on hyper-local and immediate support for businesses and self-employed people. This is a small grants programme to support businesses, and their owners and employees, directly affected near to the scenes of both incidents.
Medium term response includes events support into 2025 and 2026. This is to support events that drive up footfall into the town, which will lead to an increase in spend to the benefit of local economy and businesses.
The Southport Recovery Team was established in the days after the events of July 2024.
The team, containing five members of staff at the peak of the work, coordinated the recovery response.
A key role for the team was around communications with the team managing a range of media requests from the world’s media. Over 650 media requests have been responded to.
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