The National Lottery Heritage Fund has declined an application to assist in financing repairs of Southport Pier.
Leader Councillor Marion Atkinson confirmed the decision at a full meeting of Sefton Council last night at Bootle Town Hall.
The decision does not currently appear on the NLHF decisions website.
Sefton Council has committed to providing £3m towards the expected £13m repair bill, after the pier was “temporarily” closed in December 2022.
Despite being a Grade II listed building, the repair works hold valid Listed Building Consent required for the repairs.
“This is an absolute hammer blow for the Pier’s hopes” said Liberal Democrat Councillor John Pugh
“The Council was hoping to get up to £10M from the lottery and now will not be putting in a formal bid and may not for years.
“The current Labour administration has ruled out using Sefton’s money to complete the job, voted down opposition moves to get repairs started and won’t even begin restoration until a sizeable cheque lands on their desk.
“The outlook is bleak.”
Southport Conservatives confirmed in a press release that the party had presented motions at Council that would have seen £500,000 allocated towards the Pier with an ongoing annual budget of £172,000 only for the motion to be voted down by Labour and “some” Liberal Democrat councillors.
Conservative Councillor Mike Prendergast said, “The proposals we put forward to support Southport Pier were fully costed and simply involved removing 2 positions that have been vacant for 12 months or more and the scrapping of 2 EDI positions.”
“As ever, Labour councillors voted against measures to support Southport Pier and a number of Southport Liberal Democrat councillors did not support the measures. It was disappointing to learn afterwards that the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader has described our amendment as “dog whistle politics” yet his own leader voted for the measures, describing them as “sensible”, along with 4 other Lib Dem councillors.”
“It is imperative that Sefton Council takes measures to help itself to get Southport Pier back open. There is no white knight coming to save us with a bag of cash, we must help ourselves. The division in other local parties makes it clear that it’s only the Conservatives in Southport and across Sefton who are willing to make the difficult choices to deliver for our local residents and businesses.”