Southport Pier Plank Mystery: Council's Landfill Statement Stirs Controversy

The mystery of the disappearing planks on Southport Pier took an unexpected twist when the senior councillor, Cllr. Christine Howard, the Cabinet Member responsible for pier repairs said that the pier planks that mysteriously emerged for re-sale “categorically cannot be used for the restoration project”  and the alternative was the timber “going to landfill” .

That statement has caused further alarm about the handling of the project amongst opposition councillors. 

Lib Dem opposition leader, Cllr John Pugh said, “ Sefton in theory encourages us all to re-cycle wood and timber and has declared a climate emergency. To say the council was contemplating sticking wood into landfill is as worrying as thinking they are letting good wood go for a song. 

No way should landfill be contemplated no matter what the state of the planks and I think we now need need assurances that the highest environmental standards are going to be observed. 

It might be charitable to believe that Cllr Howard ,desperate for any excuse, just came out with this ‘landfill’  suggestion on the spur of the moment and that the Council was not thinking of that as an alternative for the timber. 

But if that’s not the case, we're looking a staggering case of Council hypocrisy. Most of us residents are driving up to Foul Lane to dispose of our old timber properly .”