Southport and West Lancashire could join together to join a new local authority after a plea by the MPs from the two areas.
Southport Conservative MP Damien Moore and West Lancashire Labour MP Rosie Cooper have sent a joint letter to the Secretary of State For Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Michael Gove MP asking for legislation to be put into place to allow the change to happen.
The proposal would affect residents in all seven council wards in Southport in: Ainsdale, Birkdale, Cambridge, Dukes, Kew, Meols and Norwood. The wards have been part of Sefton Council since a local government reorganisation took place in 1974.
In their letter to the Minister, Damien Moore and Rosie Cooper said: “We are writing to ask to meet you to discuss local government arrangements for the town of Southport, including its communities of Ainsdale, Birkdale, Cambridge, Dukes, Kew, Meols and Norwood, and West Lancashire Borough Council.
“It is our firm belief that our two communities are better served by being in the same local authority area, and we are working closer together to achieve this.
“As you said in your speech to Parliament on 2nd February 2022, when you unveiled the Levelling Up White Paper, ‘we need to allow overlooked and undervalued communities to take control of their destiny’.
“It is with this very clear and firm commitment that we ask that the necessary provisions are made to ensure that we can achieve this aim for Southport and West Lancashire, through changing the local authority catchment area.
“We appreciate that this needs primary legislation, and as communities up and down the country are keen to harness this new opportunity for self-determination, we need to ensure that provisions are in place to allow us to do this.
“We look forward to meeting with you soon.”
This week, Damien Moore will meet with Secretary of State Michael Gove to discuss the contents of this letter and to roughly plan how to get this process going.
He said: “I am pleased to have Rosie Cooper MP’s support for this campaign to get Southport out of Sefton and into Lancashire, and I look forward to speaking with Secretary of State Michael Gove about our plans.”
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