Southport MP urges government to take over ownership of crumbling Southport Pier

The Southport MP has said the Labour Government need to take over running all remaining piers in the country, including Southport’s.

The towns Pier has been ‘temporarily’ closed since late 2022 and remains shut to the public in dire need of a refurbishment.

People have been told the Pier is too unsafe to walk on and it must remain closed.

Southport MP Patrick Hurley said “There are 62 seaside piers in Great Britain, according to data from the National Piers Society.

“Many of them – as in Southport – are in a bad structural condition, having been poorly maintained over many decades, and also due to the fact that – by their very nature – piers are risky structures that face specific challenges around fires, storms, tidal surges and natural erosion.

“My own town’s pier is in local authority hands, having been taken into public ownership many decades ago. But in the post-austerity era, when council budgets have been slashed and all their services are run on a shoestring, it’s highly unlikely that any local authority member would vote to fund the renovation of a seaside pier over more fundamental concerns such as children’s services or adult social care. And asking central government to ringfence funding through councils specifically for pier renovation is also highly unlikely to be received positively.

“I propose a solution to these problems of maintenance, commercialisation, and sustainability. Piers are well-loved structures in their towns, and are undeniably tourist attractions that have an economic multiplier effect on their localities’ prospects. But they would benefit from a common approach to deal with all these common problems.

“Labour has come into government earlier this year in times of severe economic hardship, but also with a mission-led approach to government that takes inspiration from the party’s past and the traditions of Victorian-era partnerships between private enterprise and innovative government. In line with this approach, I propose a new national body to take all our existing piers into common, non-profit ownership; I’m agnostic as to whether this should be run from Whitehall through government, or on a model based on the National Trust or a similar organisation.

“But by taking all our piers into common ownership with a commercial mindset, whatever the model chosen, issues around maintenance could benefit from economies of scale, permanent supply chains could be built up to deal with annualised maintenance issues, best practice could more easily be shared between towns, and sustainable business models could be implemented through a common approach to commercialisation”