Southport Town Hall Declining into a 'Morgue', Warns Sefton Opposition Leader

Southport Town Hall is at times more like a morgue than a municipal hub and is significantly under-used, according to Sefton opposition leader, Cllr John Pugh ( Liberal Democrat). The building that was once one of the major control centres for Sefton Council, he believes, is in danger of becoming a museum piece with most day to day decisions being made in Bootle.

“Over time,” he says, “ the Labour administration has moved key functions and the Council's centre of gravity to Bootle. It’s been gutted. The Chief Executive, the Head of Legal services and Directors of Personnel and Policy and many others used to have a permanent, daily staffed presence in Southport- with the place during the daytime buzzing with activity. Now, unless a wedding is on, you generally hear the sound of silence. Confidential Social Services work takes place in the rear and there are occasional meetings and ceremonial functions, but it’s a shadow of its former self. It’s no longer a control room or power centre where the key decisions are reached and implemented on a day to day basis.

Backing up his view Cllr.Pugh has made a short reel filmed in the Town Hall at the very middle of the working week last month  https://youtu.be/m2t9e8s62BE - walking round an almost empty building.

“ It’s not just the empty space and silence,” he adds , “Covid and remote working have had an impact, I acknowledge. My big concern is that in the past Sefton’s top brass had a daily reminder of Southport’s challenges and problems because they walked in and out of a key Lord St building every day and could be contacted there. The view and the focus from Oriel Road, Bootle is simply not the same. If Labour lose control of the Council next year, our ambition would be to make Southport Town Hall once more the major hub it was and needs to be.”