Is Southport’s future bound up in ‘Liverpool City Region’?

Photo credit: (The times)

By Tom Duffy

Is Southport’s future increasingly bound up in the Liverpool City Region? That is what the Sefton Local Plan, passed this week by the Council, says.

The Local Plansays that Sefton must “make the most of it’s place within the Liverpool City Region.”  Not a mention of Lancashire, despite the fact that three quarters of Sefton Borough’s boundary is with that county and Southport, in particular, is almost surrounded by the district of West Lancashire.

The plan says that “Economically, Sefton is an integral Part of the Liverpool City Region” and “Sefton’s future is increasingly linked to the Liverpool City Region” despite the fact that (as you can see from Preston New Road/Banks Road and Southport Road/Scarisbrick New Road/Meols Cop Road every morning) there are hundreds of Southport residents who work in Lancashire and vice versa.

In the Transport section (Policy IN2) of the Local Plan, there are detailed proposals for improving a rail link between Aintree and Bootle.

“There is no mention at all of Southport’s key rail link to Wigan and Manchester.” Birkdale Councillor Iain Brodie Browne told this week’s Council meeting.

Conservative Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is pushing to put Sefton under the power of a single Liverpool City Region Mayor. The present elected mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, is backing him all the way, hoping to inherit the job.

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