The former BHS store on Chapel Street in Southport

Southport town centre is undergoing some substantial changes  at the moment – and it is not necessarily new shops which will give it the urgent boost it needs to thrive. 

It is however one thing that many people in our town desperately want to see. 

More than 7,000 people gave their views on what they wanted to see done to improve life here in the consultation for Southport Town Deal, many through Stand Up For Southport. 

Scores of people gave similar responses – ‘more shops on Lord Street’, or ‘fewer empty retail units’. 

The simple answer, in the short term, is for everyone in Southport to support the shops that we do have – it is vital that we all ‘Shop Local’ not just this Christmas, but beyond as well. 

This year saw a challenging start for retail, with two major department stores on Lord Street shutting within days of each other in March. 

The closure of Beales was followed by the demise of Debenhams, leaving two sizable anchor stores to fill. 

A further challenge came from the granting (finally) of planning permission in August to allow the new Sainsburys superstore to open at Meols Cop Retail Park in Blowick. 

The 7,596 sq m supermarket and petrol station will create 200 new jobs when it opens in 2022, while a planning condition requires the existing Sainsburys at Great Georges Place (near Lord Street) to be kept open for the next five years. 

An artist's impression of the proposed new Sainsbury's supermarket at Meols Cop retail park in Southport

An artist’s impression of the proposed new Sainsbury’s supermarket at Meols Cop retail park in Southport

Sefton Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr John Pugh had been among those who had argued against the plans, saying it would draw trade away from existing town centre businesses. 

He said: “Time has moved on and the thinking behind the megastore has not aged well and nor has the town centre, which will lose footfall if the existing Sainsbury’s on Lord Street and others move out.”

That same month, the regular Southport ‘Health Check’ carried out by Nexus Planning revealed that Southport had 13.6% of vacant town centre floorspace in 2011, rising to 15% by 2015 and reaching 18.7% by 2020. This was in comparison to the UK 2020 average of 10.6%. 

Serious investors however are eyeing Southport with much interest. 

While Southport and Lord Street in particular has a rich history as a beautiful place to shop, retail is not necessarily where this new investment is going, although it will ultimately benefit. 

One scheme which is going ahead will see JSM Company Group convert the four-storey former BHS building into 30 two-bed apartments, with five retail units and a pub on the ground floor. Their company Prestige Stay will run the building as an apart hotel. 

Just around the corner, growing IT firm Techedia is preparing the former Taskers Sports / Christ Church Higher Grade School building into a new home for 70 employees, plus a wellbeing centre. 

 

Matthew Townson of Techedia has announced his £1m plan to redevelop The Cloisters building in Southport

Matthew Townson of Techedia has announced his £1m plan to redevelop The Cloisters building in Southport

Other landmark buildings could soon be brought back into use. 

Under Southport Town Deal, a business incubator is proposed in one of Southport’s former shopping arcades to provide much needed space for the town’s digital and creative businesses.

A larger Enterprise Store could also be developed in a former department store building to provide scale-up accommodation for growing businesses. 

Building work is currently taking place at Southport Market in a £1.4million scheme to convert the building from retail into a brand new food, drink and events hub. 

Southport BID is working hard to improve the town too. The BID is helping the council with the Southport Townscape Heritage scheme which is improving historic buildings in the town centre. 

The BID is also behind the new lighting along Lord Street as well as bringing flowers and Christmas decorations to the town centre, providing the feelgood factor to attract visitors. The new Southport Gift Card will encourage people to support local businesses.  

Longer term, we are seeing exciting proposals for a new £70million ‘waterside events centre’ to replace Southport Theatre and Convention Centre; a £40million investment for a brand new ‘Southport Cove’ surf resort at Princes Park; an ambition to transform Southport Pleasureland into an all-weather all year round attraction’ and an immersive light and sound show for the Marine Lake. 

Victoria Park is emerging as a venue for an exciting new array of events such as Comedy In The Park and the Smoke & Fire Festival North to add to Southport Flower Show, attracting thousands of new visitors into our town. 

At the northern end of Lord Street, Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group has led regeneration efforts from retail into the trendy ‘Northern Quarter’ focusing mainly on hotels, bars and restaurants. 

Southport is at a critical point. 

Things are changing, and changing rapidly. The growth of online shopping and stresses in the retail sector is not purely a Southport issue. Our Debenhams store was one of 22 to close nationwide in March for example. 

With change comes opportunity. We want to see Southport town centre thriving, really thriving again. To do that we won’t necessarily see retail replace retail. 

But we could see these changes benefit the existing shops and other local businesses that we do have. 

Filling big empty buildings and making our town centre busy is good news. Bringing new visitors into the apart hotel at the former BHS, new enterprises into Southport Market and new employees into the former Taskers Sports will hopefully bring greater numbers of people to visit local businesses, creating greater spend. 

We all want to see Lord Street and Southport town centre really thriving again. With the various plans taking place, through Southport Town Deal, Southport BID and others, hopefully that will happen. 

It will be a different town that emerges but by being creative and forward thinking it can become a vibrant place to be once again. 

Do you have any stories for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com

24 Comments
  1. P Darke 3 years ago

    Wow! BHS closed ages ago, and there was NO sign of it being re-opened yesterday!!

  2. België 7 months ago

    Asking questions are genuinely fastidious thing if you are
    not understanding anything completely, except this post presents pleasant understanding even.

  3. I have been exploring for a bit for any high-quality articles or blog posts in this kind of space
    . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this web site.
    Reading this info So i’m glad to show that I have an incredibly
    just right uncanny feeling I found out just what
    I needed. I so much definitely will make sure to don?t disregard this web site and provides
    it a glance on a constant basis.

  4. Errol 5 months ago

    I got this web page from my pal who told me concerning this site
    and now this time I am browsing this site and reading very informative articles at
    this time.

  5. … [Trackback]

    […] There you can find 65574 more Info to that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  6. … [Trackback]

    […] Here you will find 84292 more Information to that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  7. finnish id card 5 months ago

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More Info here on that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  8. lsm99 5 months ago

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on to that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  9. … [Trackback]

    […] Information on that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  10. Buy Guns In usa 4 months ago

    … [Trackback]

    […] There you will find 8085 more Information on that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  11. u31 com 4 months ago

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More to that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  12. Julie 2 months ago

    Hello every one, here every person is sharing such experience, so it’s fastidious to read this website, and I used to pay a
    quick visit this website all the time.

  13. Hello, I enjoy reading all of your article.
    I wanted to write a little comment to support you.

  14. Rena Abdella 2 months ago

    I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later on. Many thanks https://slashpage.com/dogal-taslar

  15. Hey there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my
    good old room mate! He always kept chatting
    about this. I will forward this page to him.
    Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for
    sharing!

  16. bymntusty 2 months ago

    Love the website– extremely individual friendly and lots to see! koop selegilina in Antwerpen

  17. … [Trackback]

    […] Find More to that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  18. read more 4 weeks ago

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  19. เกม 3D 4 weeks ago

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More Info here on that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  20. … [Trackback]

    […] There you will find 77355 more Info on that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

  21. Iron scrap reusing 3 weeks ago

    Industrial scrap metal pricing Ferrous material recycling margins Iron scrap recovery plants

    Ferrous material lean practices, Iron scrap export procedures, Metal recycling education

  22. Iron scrap recycling 2 weeks ago

    Metal waste reclaimer Ferrous material recycling unit Iron scrap remanufacturing

    Ferrous metal recuperating, Iron scrap reclamation solutions, Metal reclaiming and recycling solutions

  23. Iron recovery 2 weeks ago

    Metal reclamation services Ferrous material sorting Iron and steel recycling and reclamation

    Ferrous scrap recycling education, Iron scrap grading, Scrap metal material testing

  24. … [Trackback]

    […] Find More on to that Topic: standupforsouthport.com/southport-town-centre-major-investment/ […]

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?