Communities up and down the coast are set to benefit from a £40 million cash boost.



Southport Pier and Seafront
A series of improvements to the Grade II listed pier in Southport. This will include painting the structure, installing improved lighting, and a new staircase and helter-skelter. New food and retail kiosks will also be built. A new Visitor Welcome Team will be set up and the pier will be promoted as a vantage point for bird watching.

Communities up and down the coast are set to benefit from a £40 million cash boost, Sajid Javid announced today (3 April 2017).

Piers, promenades and coastal paths are some of over 30 exciting new projects set to create new jobs, attract tourists and boost economic growth for their local areas.

This latest investment delivers on the government’s manifesto commitment to support fishing and coastal communities, and create an economy that works for everyone.

The funding is helping coastal tourism regain its position as England’s largest holiday sector. With one third of all domestic overnight trips made to the coast, coastal tourism is now worth £8 billion to the economy each year.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

We’re backing the Great British Coast with £40 million to create new jobs, boost economic growth and increase tourism.

There’s a range of exciting projects set to benefit across the country, from a new conference centre for Blackpool to new beach huts and lifeguards for Hastings.

This new funding will help attract even more tourists to our coast and help our seaside towns and coastal areas thrive.

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Councillor Tony Dawson represents the main leisure seafront area of the town. He says:

"One third of all domestic overnight trips are now made to the coast with coastal tourism being worth £8 billion to the economy each year."
Despite Sefton Council trying to cut back on our Tourism support, this sort of measure can help businesses in the town create new jobs, boost economic growth and further increase tourism."

"I was very concerned about the poor quality of the paint job on the pier last time it was done. Great big flakes have been falling off for many months. I trust that the latest expenditure of public money will be more effective."

Since 2012, the government has invested £120 million in projects through the Coastal Communities Fund across the UK. There has been a rise of over two million extra visitors, increasing spending by £171 million in coastal communities.

All of the projects awarded funding in this latest round were submitted or supported by Coastal Community Teams of which there are now 146 in coastal towns around the country made up of volunteers, councils and local businesses who have been tasked with producing economic plans to create jobs along the shore.

Now all it needs is to be open later than 6pm so people can enjoy it. As for more food outlets I hope they're better than the limited offerings of the Pavilion café.

They can start by getting rid of the grass and returning it to a beach!

It isn't April the First...is it??????

Not being funny but haven't the birdwatchers got enough facilities along Marine Drive?

Twitchers could be in line for a visitor centre at Marshside apparently.

A pier inside a lagoon that will be novel. Sort the beach out first

Originally Posted by K-T

Thanks for the explanation. So if we had a tractor ploughing up the central section of beach (around the pier), would it not stop the sand from silting up?

It is possible that constantly working the beach, sifting and cleaning the sand could delay the inevitable, but I would hate to estimate the work and cost involved, in most parts of Southport dig through the top soil and underneath you find sand, this was at one time the coast, as an example at one time (more than a little while back) the tide actually reached Rufford, coming straight across, over what became Martin Mere.

Originally Posted by Rockape

Not being funny but haven't the birdwatchers got enough facilities along Marine Drive?

Don't let the twitchers take over, they do more than enough harm by flooding the fields inland of the coastal rd.

Originally Posted by silver fox

Don't let the twitchers take over, they do more than enough harm by flooding the fields inland of the coastal rd.

Completely agree ""Silver"! This is a tourist resort NOT a "lepers paradise" for chuffin birdwatchers!! When will they listen to local residents who live in Marshside, our gardens are flooded every year by these numpties flooding their "waste of space" chuffin "bird-field".... Now they want more facilities!! There's no sodding birds on their stupid bird field, they're all on the golf course where they're safe and don't get disturbed by over excitable old farts with binoculars. Go to Martin Mere FGS, they've more birds than they know what to do with............... Oh and let's be absolutely clear, the RSPB deliberately flood their stupid field with padlocked sluice-gates and barricading the natural drainage points. They should be charged with a public nuisance offence, damned unneighbourly and totally irresponsible......

Nice to see a positive being turned into a negative again. You people are great.

What would really put the pier and our town on the map is if we could connect the end of the pier with Lytham St Anne's with a state of the art 'floating cycle lane' much as I'm told exists in Scandinavia and other progressive places

Originally Posted by Kirkstarbuck

What would really put the pier and our town on the map is if we could connect the end of the pier with Lytham St Anne's with a state of the art 'floating cycle lane' much as I'm told exists in Scandinavia and other progressive places

Absolutely! Couldn't that be combined with the wave barrier to generate electricity and create a lagoon with a cycle lane on top? Now there's a plan!

Originally Posted by Tallboy

Completely agree ""Silver"! This is a tourist resort NOT a "lepers paradise" for chuffin birdwatchers!! When will they listen to local residents who live in Marshside, our gardens are flooded every year by these numpties flooding their "waste of space" chuffin "bird-field".... Now they want more facilities!! There's no sodding birds on their stupid bird field, they're all on the golf course where they're safe and don't get disturbed by over excitable old farts with binoculars. Go to Martin Mere FGS, they've more birds than they know what to do with............... Oh and let's be absolutely clear, the RSPB deliberately flood their stupid field with padlocked sluice-gates and barricading the natural drainage points. They should be charged with a public nuisance offence, damned unneighbourly and totally irresponsible......

Bird watchers don't flood the fields the rain & tides do that, what the RSPB or the Water companies or anyone else does is not done by bird watchers, they simply enjoy their pastime. Perhaps you should get something to fill your time with instead of getting wound up. By the way I live in Marshside & to the best of my knowledge I don't have Leprosy.

Originally Posted by Kafoozalum

Bird watchers don't flood the fields the rain & tides do that, what the RSPB or the Water companies or anyone else does is not done by bird watchers, they simply enjoy their pastime. Perhaps you should get something to fill your time with instead of getting wound up. By the way I live in Marshside & to the best of my knowledge I don't have Leprosy.

Granted bird watchers don't flood the fields, but the RSPB do deliberately stop natural drainage to create wetland which is easier for twitchers, rather than them having to go out to where the birds are, I live in Marshside and have seen the majority of our coastal birds tend to feed along the edge of the tide as the tides come in and out, obviously too difficult for the avid bird watchers.

I don't imagine that the previous poster was referring to Marshside residents as lepers.