Pressure is being placed upon the owners of one of central Southport’s iconic buildings to repair it and get it back into use.
The Art D eco facade of the upstairs floors above Leos Bar on the corner of Nevill Street and Bath Street has been falling off dangerously into the street. This led the Council last year to place plastic barriers on the pavement to protect the public from falling masonry.
Town Centre Councillor Tony Dawson is concerned both for public safety and also because this prominent site is one of the first things many visiters to Southport see ans they walk from Lord Street to the Pier and Kings Gardens. He is pressing the Council to take speedy enforcement action against the freeholder of this building and, if no speedy action is forthcoming, to do the remedial work itself and send the owner the bill.
Councillor Dawson says:
“I inspected this building before Christmas with the Council’s Director of Planning and was informed that the owner was being given a ‘last chance’ to get on with the remedial work . I was also told that the facade had been ‘made safe’ by knocking off any bits of cement which presented a risk. All that has happened since , sadly, is that the plastic barriers have blown all over the pavement in an ugly mess.
“If the building is really safe now then the barriers can be taken away. In the meantime, I have personally put the ones which fell over back up. Unfortunately, the weight of one sandbag for each barrier was not enough to cope with Storm Eleanor which has also brought down one of the Nevill Street Christmas decorations.
“With the present level of homelessness, the Council cannot allow useful buildings in good locations to be left empty for years. They have the powers to force these places back into use and they need to use them.”