A Councillor who has led the fight to restore and regenerate Southport Town Centre has called for the Local Authority to act fairly should they be awarded a potential Heritage Lottery Funding Grant for a Townscape Heritage project.
Cllr David Barton spoke out after it was revealed that up to a potential £5 million of grant funding from Heritage Lottery Fund is being sought by Sefton Council, specifically for areas between Lord Street and the Promenade linking up the Town Centre with the seafront in order to build on the recent Heritage Lottery Funded restoration of Kings Gardens and the Coastal Communities Fund of £2m for Southport Pier.
He said he was dismayed that given the late timing of submission this could potentially deter present Property Owners from continuing or commencing with restoring their own properties between both Lord Street and the Promenade and potentially jeopardize applications from Property Owners in grave need of financial assistance from Local and Central Government.
Cllr Barton, who represents Dukes Ward, said he had originally raised the issue of mass scale restorative support in the summer of 2015 and had liaised extensively with the then Minister of State for Communities and Local Government Mark François MP. Since then he has continued to correspond with Marcus Jones MP and Jake Berry MP to date for additional support for the Coastal Town.
He said: “Whilst I welcome this potential support for the restoration of our Victorian hometown I would have preferred the geographical parameters to have encompassed a larger cross-section of the streetscape for several reasons. Firstly, this has the potential to create ruptures in trust and confidence across the local community whereby an impression is cast that if within the designated parameter certain stakeholders may delay and indeed in some cases forgo their own private restorative works which can culminate in some cases to unnecessary and unwelcome Enforcement action. Secondly this carries the hazard of detracting present property owners outside the parameter zone to equally forego their own restorative works in protest. Thirdly and finally there may indeed be property owners across both the Conservation areas in grave assistance of financial assistance who may either be ineligible or be outcompeted to the final shortlist by other property owners who may be more fiscally stable.
“Given this is a potential once in a generation opportunity to enhance the local environment I firmly believe if these conditions should be revised to truly best protect Southport’s Victoriana.
A more all-encompassing approach such as restoring the final Southern Cross-section of the Phase III Lord Street Balustrades from Market Street to Duke Street would be much fairer for all stakeholders if funding cannot be rerouted to those requiring the greatest support irrespective of whether they are within the Town Centre parameter zone or not.”
“Is it also fair to be targeting a select minority of property owners only when various owners of the town’s civic buildings have made painstaking efforts in compliance with the planning law within the Lord Street and Promenade Conservation Areas to date?”
Cllr Barton said he had previously consulted directly with a multitude of property owners and their contractors who equally felt this could impact directly on future such restoration of their own properties if the present proposals are not revaluated.
He added: “Whilst I welcome any support for Southport this must be objective and wholly democratic otherwise this is double standards and defies the concept of having a Conservation Area status.
“It is paramount that all property owners are given the opportunity to be included in this and any future such funding grants if Southport is to truly achieve “Classic Resort” Status again as a first class retail destination to live, work and visit.”
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