Row over plans for Southport Town Hall gardens

Southport's Civic Society has said it will object to plans to regenerate the Town Hall gardens.

The £10m plan to create a family-friendly performance space on the site was inspired by three girls who were killed in a knife attack in the town in 2024.

The Civic Society said the proposals include demolishing the garden's two pavilions along with historic lights and balustrades, and it wants the authority to re-consider.

Sefton Council leader Marion Atkinson told the BBC there had already been several stages of public consultation and that "all views would be listened to".

The council said Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Da Silva Aguiar, and Bebe King "inspired a vision for a new town square that will be an inclusive community focussed events space in the heart of Southport Town Centre".

In June 2025, the government announced it would contribute £5m to the project, with the remainder of the funding coming from Sefton Council and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

In the aftermath of the murders, a vigil was held on the site, and people laid flowers and tributes. The girls' parents said the regeneration would be a "thank you" to the people of the town for "standing shoulder to shoulder" with them.

The plans for the area include a performance space, water feature and a new botanic garden.

The chairman of Southport civic society, Martin Perry, said the plans would mean the existing landscape outside the Atkinson art gallery would be "razed to the ground".

He said two pavilions would be demolished along with lighting designed by renowned civic architect Thomas Mawson in the early 20th century.

He added the architectural details like balustrades and lighting formed "the identity of Southport".

The council said a fountain which was created in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales following her death in 1997 would be removed. Perry said the fountain was "much loved by local children who come and play in it".

The area is currently in a state of disrepair, with grass growing between cracked paving slabs. There are flowerbeds and planters which are maintained by a vibrant group of volunteers.

The gardens have been remodelled several times over the years, most recently in 1998, when various architectural details from the past were reinstated.

Civic society member Becky Tallentire said "it doesn't need regenerating, it needs maintaining, and the tiles [to be] fixed and cleaned up properly".

She also questioned whether the public consultation had received enough publicity.

Marion Atkinson said there had been several phases of feedback gathered on the plans already, including "massive amounts of consultation with young children in schools, hundreds of kids across the schools to see what they'd like to see" and added that it was not "just a tick box exercise".

Sefton Council said it invited residents, businesses and visitors to share their views on the proposals before the plans progressed towards a detailed planning application.

The consultation closed on Monday 5 October 2026, and the feedback received will be considered by the design team as the proposals are developed further and a formal planning application is made.

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