Police and coastguard called after 40 people spotted walking on closed pier

Police and the coastguard were called after people were spotting walking on Southport Pier.

The HM Coastguard Southport were called to tourist attraction on Sunday, May 5 at around 5.07pm to "provide safety cover" for Merseyside Police. It followed reports of "40 people being on the pier itself".

Southport Pier was closed by Sefton Council in 2022 on the advice of structural engineers after a period of extreme weather and is pending repair. In a statement, the coastguard said the hoardings securing the pier entrance had been breached, and as a result the general public had entered the pier.

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Police cleared the pier of people, and with help from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service the hoarding was secured again. The closure of the pier has had a significant impact on the town's leisure and tourism offer, with many residents and local business owners keen to see the pier re-opened.

However, due to the financial costs of the refurbishment, any possible re-opening had been placed in limbo. Sefton Council previously commissioned exploratory works to determine the scale of the problems at the pier and subsequently published images which showed the "significant" disrepair and erosion to the pier’s structure.

The council have also stated they are working with a 'collective of industry-leading experts' to establish a practical and realistic time frame for all works to be delivered. A significant update was released by the local authority last week as they confirmed their overall planning team dedicated to open up Southport Pier.

A E Yates, who managed the exploratory and investigation works on Southport Pier, have signed a pre-construction services agreement (PCSA) with Sefton Council. A PCSA is used to appoint a design and build contractor to carry out services before entering into a formal building contract.

These contracts are used in a two-stage tendering to obtain further design input, construction and technical advice as well as detailed information about potential costs. The formalising of the relationship between the two parties means A E Yates join Southport based RAL Architects Gardiner & Theobold, structural engineers Fairhurst, Steve A Hunt & Associates and Pegasus Planning as part of the expert project team tasked with bringing Southport Pier back to life.

Responding to the news, Sefton Council Labour Leader, Marion Atkinson said: “I am really pleased to see our hard work and commitment to the Pier is paying off. This is the final piece of the jigsaw.

"The signing of this contract puts us in the best position to start work on the Pier. We are now calling on government to support us with the funding we need to get the Pier open and maintain this important historic asset.”

Sefton's local authority believe this latest partnership agreement puts them in the perfect place to deliver the refurbishment project - the only caveat being there is still no funding in place to begin the work.

It is estimated the full refurbishment works required to ensure the Pier can open safely again could exceed £13 million, more than £10 million in excess of the £3m the Council have already agreed to borrow to fund decking replacement.

Chief Executive of Sefton Council, Phil Porter said: “Sefton Council has and will continue to invest resources and funds into the Southport Pier project and I have seen first-hand the incredible depth of planning that is being done to put us in the best possible position to begin the refurbishment once vital and necessary funding is secured.

"We continue to engage with a range of central and regional government departments and other parties over identifying funding for the refurbishment and longer-term maintenance of Southport Pier."

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