A statement from Southport MP Damien Moore.


There has been a lot of speculation and half-truths surrounding the Town’s Fund I helped secure last year, and what it means for Southport. I wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

The idea for a Town’s Fund began last year when I, and like-minded colleagues, lobbied the Government for a pot of money which could be used to invest in towns which may have been neglected in the past. The Government listened to our proposals, and the Prime Minister announced a £3.6 billion Town’s Fund. 100 towns across the country were chosen to take part in the scheme, with a maximum of £25 million ring fenced for each. Southport was one of those towns. Each have been asked to set up a Town’s Fund Board, which will draft proposals on how they wish to see £25 million spent. If the proposals meet the criteria, the money will follow.




A couple of months later, it was announced that Southport was to receive £173,029 of capacity funding. This money was provided to cover the cost of creating those detailed and thorough proposals. Using the capacity funding, Southport has now convened our Town’s Fund Board, of which I am a member. That was the start of the funding, not the end of it. It should have been a moment for celebration - Southport was to begin its journey to the largest direct investment in our town in a generation.

If you’d been listening to opposition parties when this initial wave of funding was announced, however, you’d have been forgiven for believing that the sky was falling in or that Southport had not been successful. Indeed, it has been suggested Southport could receive anywhere between £1 and £25 million and that the £173,029 was all our town was getting - and no more.

But I can take the articles and campaigns which attack me personally. That’s the nature of the job I’m in. The real issue I take with the behaviour of opposition parties is the fact that they seek to undermine every single bit positive of news our town receives whilst simultaneously questioning why our high street is struggling. At the end of the day, this Town’s Fund is one of the best opportunities Southport has. I achieved in just two years what my Liberal Democrat predecessor failed to do in sixteen. I helped secure a massive investment not only in our town, but in towns across the country - why can’t opposition parties welcome that?

Just let us know when the money arrives, and for what it is going to be used.

The rest is just talk, which is all that our MP has been able to achieve so far. (611/650)

Damien, you haven't secured a single penny for the town. You've secured a place in the raffle not a prize. The size of the prize will be s team effort, not your own.

Originally Posted by Nash

Just let us know when the money arrives, and for what it is going to be used.

The rest is just talk, which is all that our MP has been able to achieve so far. (611/650)

Even if it's £1, isn't that more than John Pugh achieved in 16 years in money for the town (discounting the thousands JP funnelled into local Lib Dems accounts via renting his parliamentary office from the Gladstone club in return for a donation to the local party), so whether you like him or not, he could have a point.

No one over the years has tangibly been able to say what the Lib Dems have delivered other than not being the "nasty tories".

Damien does have a point with local political people, they spend more time doing each other down than anything constructive for the town. You only have to see Cllr Dawsons constant whinges about Bootle or no one wanting to work with him to see that.