Hundreds attend meeting on future of historical pier

Hundreds of people packed into a fish and chip restaurant for a public meeting about a seaside town's pier.

Organisers of the event in Southport said they had expected 40 attendees – but about 400 people turned up.

The aim of the meeting was to see if "people power" could come up with a way to find the money needed to restore the 1860 structure to its former glory.

The pier was closed by Sefton Council in December 2022 because of health and safety fears.

The meeting's organiser, Serena Silcock-Prince, said the pier had been a part of her life "forever".

She said her great-great-grandmother had run a cafe on the pier and that "the pier, the beach, the donkey rides" were all at the centre of her childhood.

She called the meeting in the restaurant her family owns to try and bring people together and come up with an action plan for the structure.

She said the pier's closure had badly affected businesses.

"We try to look on the positives as a company – but it's been hard, not just for us for the whole town," she told BBC Radio Merseyside.

Dr Anya Chapman from the University of Bournemouth whose research focuses on piers, told the meeting that most piers in the UK charged visitors an admission fee.

There were gasps from the crowd when she said that Southend Pier charged £7.50 admission, but a show of hands in the meeting revealed most people agreed charging a donation or fee would be a good way to raise revenue once the pier was reopen.

The meeting was also attended by Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors and Southport's Labour MP Patrick Hurley.

Mr Hurley said it had been a good starting point for discussions about how a newly revitalised charitable trust could seek funding for the work to reopen the pier, which the council estimated could be £13m.

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