Sefton gets ball rolling on Marine Lake Events Centre

With business case approval for the £75m Southport destination now agreed, investigatory works are to begin, enabling finalisation of designs.

Letters have been sent to local residents to inform them that investigatory works on the existing Southport Theatre and Convention Centre site and the Upper Promenade, informing the recipients that works will be ongoing from Monday 8 August.

Expected to take around four weeks using a weekday workday pattern between 8am and 6pm, investigations will involve assessing the underground conditions to progress the design further. Measures will be in place to minimise disruption.

Sefton Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and skills, Cllr Marion Atkinson said:

“The Marine Lake Events Centre is a hugely exciting and hugely important scheme for Southport and Sefton.

“The Centre is forecast to attract more than half a million visitors to Southport year on year and generating an annual £18m for the local economy so I am pleased to see work to progress getting underway so soon after receiving council cabinet backing.

“We now need the Government to release the funding we need to make the Centre a reality as soon as possible.”

Plans to procure a design & build contractor and an operating partner for the venue were also agreed at the recent Sefton Council Cabinet meeting. A detailed planning application was submitted in early July.

The MLEC accounts for the lion’s share of the successful bid for £37.5m of Town Deal funding for Southport and will see the theatre and convention centre complex redeveloped into a high-quality entertainment and business events venue

The new Centre will be complemented by the UK’s first light, water and sound show in the town’s Marine Lake.

The other Town Deal projects are the Enterprise Arcade, which will see Crown Buildings refurbished to create business incubator space for Southport’s creative, digital and tech sector; and Les Transformations de Southport, a public spaces and active travel project.