Lack of quality hotel space could harm Southport’s conference resort ambitions says John Pugh

Sefton Liberal Democrat Leader John Pugh says Southport’s aspirations of becoming a leading conference resort could be undermined by a lack of quality hotel space.

Mr Pugh says fears have been expressed that any success Southport has in securing a new conference centre will be undermined by trouble in the hotel market.

“The big limitation on Southport’s ability hitherto to attract the bigger conferences in the past has been the quantity and quality of the beds available to delegates.”

“Matters had been improving in recent decades with the arriving of a Travel Lodge, Premier Inn and boutique hotels like the Vincent but some of Southport’s larger and older hotels are sadly in need of further investment and some like the Scarisbrick, owned by Britannia have been temporarily given over to other purposes. The Prince of Wales has a rolling contract to accommodate the homeless and there is continuing uncertainty about the future of the Royal Clifton.”

“Bed numbers look like they are going south“ according to John Pugh, Liberal Democrat leader on Sefton Council.

“Ideally we will need every bed we have got and more. However in the recent past we have seen planning committees give the thumbs up for hotels to convert to apartments.

“So much of Southport’s history is wrapped up in our big hotels,but so is Southport’s future,” claims Cllr.Pugh

“We need every bed we have got to attract the conferences that will fill the conference centre. We cannot currently compete even with the likes of Torquay on the bed numbers we have got.Any haemorrhaging of beds has be seen as our Achilles’ heel and a threat to plans for the future.

Current plans are predicated on us cutting big-style into a very competitive,conference market. Post Covid and the discovery of Zoom, the conference business will be smaller and Southport will need to score highly in every category including bedspace.”