One year after buying the Bootle Strand shopping centre at an alleged purchase price of £32.5 million (financed via a loan), Sefton Council is now going to spend another £3.15 million of public money on ‘our’ shopping center. And there we all were, thinking that Sefton Council was short of a few bob! Not short of money for pet projects in Bootle, it seems.
Just when are communities like Southport, Formby, Maghull etc. going to see this level of investment in their retail facilities from Sefton Council? Southport’s Lord Street still struggles and Maghull Square, for example, is down at heel and never seems to get the upgrade that it needs to smarten up its tired 1960’s exterior.
On his blog, former Council Leader Tony Robertson asks: “Why buy a Bootle shopping center but not shopping centers elsewhere in the Borough of Sefton? Why is Bootle’s shopping center a bigger priority than those elsewhere? Why does a cash-strapped Council think that investing public money in shopping centers is such a high priority in any circumstances?”