By Andrew Brown Stand Up For Southport
Southport has shown itself to be Britain’s kindest town this week.
Monday was Southport’s darkest ever day. The tragic incident when three young girls were killed and several children and adults were injured after enjoying a Taylor Swift themed dance and yoga class at The Hart Space, on a sunny day during the school summer holidays.
As if that wasn’t bad enough to contend with for a population in heartbreak, a mob of rioters then descended to attack people’s cars, homes, businesses and place of worship, while hurling bricks to put over 50 local police officers in hospital.
Those acts of horror have sparked a thousand acts of kindness, including several acts of extreme courage and bravery.
Wendy Miller, a Hart Street resident who lit her tree pink in remembrance, described it perfectly: “Southport may be a small town, but it’s a small town with a huge heart”.
The one phrase everyone keeps mentioning this week is ‘Southport together’.
To people from Southport, or the many who have been here, it comes as no surprise.
This is a friendly, warm, welcoming, inclusive seaside town, which loves hosting over 9 million visitors and holiday makers every year. It’s why they keep coming back.
We’re a diverse town, where our places of worship include several churches, a mosque and a synagogue. Our businesses hail from around the globe. You can call into a Romanian supermarket; a Korean restaurant; a Polish bakery; an Italian deli.
At our Grand Pride Of Sefton Awards this year, the Sefton School Of The Year Award was won by Holy Trinity Primary, a school with an immense sense of community where talented children speak a total of 27 separate languages in addition to English.
It’s why the riot on Tuesday night bore no relation to what Southport is like as a town.
I was asked by BBC Radio Scotland on Wednesday about the ‘two events’ we had seen in Southport this week, the vigil on Tuesday afternoon and the riots later that night, and whether there was any sense locally that the first would lead to the second.
The two events we have seen in Southport I told them were the vigil; and the clean-up operation we held after the riots.
The looting, the destruction, the violence that was meted out, as we have seen in other cities subsequently, was for the vast part caused by outside agents with their own agenda.
First – the bravery. The actions of the two women who organised the Taylor Swift event, Leanne Lucas and Heidi Barlow, were incredibly brave, selfless and life-saving. They put themselves between the knife attacker and the children.
Others, window cleaner Joel Verite, local businessman John Hayes, stepped in with no thought of their own safety either to tackle the perpetrator and try and save children’s lives.
The vigil which followed was incredibly moving. It was organised by two local women, Karlie Walker and Helen Hible, and the subsequent support was immense.
Many people and organisations stepped in to help them, including Southport BID, Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Moonlight Events, Rev Martin Abrams, Sefton Council and more.
Thousands of people came to show their love and support for the families affected.
As they came, they brought with them flowers; hand-written notes and cards; teddy bears and toys.
Thousands have been arriving in a steady stream ever since, not only at the Town Hall Gardens, but also at Hart Street and outside the schools where the victims attended.
Southport Hesketh Round Table was among those who quickly set up fundraisers to help those who needed it, with incredible generosity from wellwishers.
Wednesday morning also saw the best among local people. After several streets in the Hart Street area were smashed by rioters, including Southport Mosque, people headed down in their numbers on Wednesday morning to repair the damage.
Some brought vans; some brought bins and brushes; others came down with bottles of water and cakes. An ice cream van turned up to hand out free ice cream.
A window firm offered to repair the smashed windows in people’s homes for free. A gate company was there carrying out repairs. A property company was among those fixing the mosque. Dowhigh was there at 3am cleaning rubble from the streets. It was a massive show of unity.
At spots where the flowers and tributes have been laid, volunteers have turned up to water and look after them, bringing them inside for safe keeping when it rains.
People of all ages have set up fundraisers.
They have shown their empathy by turning their homes pink; their social media accounts pink.
After the violence, the horrors and the riots of the past week, we need kindness now more than ever.
Our Stand Up For Southport Facebook group has been inundated with messages of love from people; details of what people have been doing to make a positive difference to people’s lives. It has been heartwarming to see. Please keep them coming.
At a time when the world has been watching, local people have come together to show that Southport is the kindest town in Britain.
If there is one legacy left from everything that has happened these traumatic few days then this is it.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrownn@gmail.com
