Sefton pursues nature-led Ainsdale regeneration

An attractive town, plus the beach is very popular and needs much better, higher-end leisure facilities down there.

Pigs might fly!!!!!!!!!!!

This may all eventually be possible but the key word is eventually!!!
Sadly as slow as the wheels turn it will be all up and running in about 20:years 😢😢😢

Is there still going to be vehicle access on to the beach?

Car parking lot… why can’t we use British English?

Ainsdale has the potential to be a jewel in the Crown for Sefton Council for tourism. Whilst I think the plans above are great I fear that cost will inevitably put the council off and as an Ainsdale resident I will continue to see Todd Hall and The Sands as crumbling eyesores. As someone who originally hails from the South of the borough I just don’t understand how the Council concentrates so much of its spending on Bootle, the buying of The Strand shopping complex was in my opinion a total waste of money. If Sefton Council concentrated at least some of the same budgeting on the North of the borough as it does on Bootle they would see revenues twofold which would improve finances for all of the borough. I’m not bashing Bootle in anyway, Seaforth, Netherton, Crosby, Waterloo all miss out on council spending decisions. It appears to me and many across the whole of the borough that the council is too Bootle centric at the behest of the rest off us who live in Sefton. I have my fingers and toes crossed that I’m wrong and the plans for Ainsdale come to fruition so that all Sefton residents can benefit from a stunning place that is lovely to visit and has so much potential to make the council money that it can spend across all of Sefton proportionally. 🤞

Another white Elephant for Southport, I am a sangrounder , not biased , but too many lies have been told about Southport and its regeneration, too many people taking and not enough putting back.

Great stuff 👏 👏

So renovation of Southport Pier goes further down the list then?

Hope this includes decent/ respectable public toilets!

So.. they will flatten everything.. put up expensive car parking.. which means they won’t let cars on the beach without paying extraextra.. and the only place for food and toilets is going to Aldi …be very expensive.. and in the illustration what are the balloons and golden arch from…?

There used to be a lido there for paddling and bathing that’s what we need .

After spending thousands of pounds painting the mural on Toad Hall, the plan is to demolish it ? As usual, Sefton Council is intent on wasting money on ridiculous projects (e.g. the purchase of The Strand in Bootle) instead of preserving and improving our heritage (e.g. Southport
pier and the Lord Street canopies). Regeneration is definitely needed but not on useless amenities (e.g. the on-going “fancy” pavements on Eastbank Street. Come on, Sefton Council, stop wasting our Council tax and get real !!!

How expensive will the carparking the coffee shop be? and will the beach access be even more expensive?

Good luck with that.
Ainsdale, Birkdale and Churchtown are the best spots for me, the only parts to be, and preferably if your mortgage is paid off and your pension is boxed off and good to live off.
However, the town centre is a nightmare, empty shops, smackheads sleeping in doorways, boozers drinking in bars on Lord St at 10am. Parking charges, so I park in Westcliffe Road and walk in to hit M&S and Primark.
Spending tax payers money on posh paving is going to do nothing for it.
And this year 4 retailers have gone in 8 months, one Reputation Menswear a high mens shop, this clinched it for me, the town is dead.
So live in the suburbs, play tennis or golf, have the means to drive out of it, and stay out of town where it is depressing and even in the summer just a sad place with no vibe.
Great shame… Thank you Sefton Council for destroying my beautiful home town, and thanks for nothing! 🤬😡

The town/village doesn’t need more visitors. It’s already rammed. Could have converted the old pub into a small casino.
But hey. Knock it down.

How can Sefton Council afford this pipe dream when they’ve been years trying to scrape money together for the pier?

If the beach was cleared of grass between the pier and the toad hall entrance it would make the area more attractive to holiday makers and day trippers

Nature lead regeneration is definitely the way forward.

It’s a great idea As at the moment it looks so run down.

I don’t understand what the obsession with providing a car park is. There’s plenty on the beach and the ones that clog up Ainsdale’s streets are only doing so because they don’t want to pay for parking. So why delivering a new car park is a thing baffles me….

Would recommend googling Blokhus in Denmark or Scheveningen in Netherlands (the further end at least). Have just returned from Blokhus some weeks back and the similarities and differences to Ainsdale are worth noting. Same with Scheveningen. Currently there is nothing that connects Ainsdale village to the beach but a long-ish walk. The Pontins /toad hall area is horrific does need complete redevelopment. But have some respect for the place. Ainsdale is a reasonable affluent area. Don’t be putting McDonald type ventures there. There needs to be some good restaurants / bars (not sports bars), adequate parking, refreshment places for dog walkers (since this is obvious place for dog walkers). I don’t think folk would want stack loads of fish and chip plastic cartons and wooden forks. I think maybe Southport / Ainsdale would like to move on from that.

Looks brilliant. This will compliment the Cove Resort just up the road well.

Also see Vlissingen in Netherlands. And try and get this chap to bring some of his stuff to Ainsdale…..:-)

In my view the visitor centre & car park should go on the Sands site and act as a gateway to Ainsdale beach and the wider Southport area. It would also compliment the adjacent nature walk and lake.

The larger site (former Pontins and Toad Hall) is the ‘jewel in the crown’ site which should be used to generate commercial interest, e.g. an upmarket holiday park & spa similar to Ribby Hall. The Council will need commercial investment if this “vision” is ever to get of the ground. Lets face it, the Council don’t have funds so unless we are realistic about some form of viable commercial development, nothing is ever going to happen. Of course, this assumes the site isn’t in a flood-zone….

Noticeable that neither United Utilities (for water quality) or Britannia Hotels (for delivery) are partners in this pipe dream

Sefton has bled Southport dry.

The Therme spa would have been much better placed here than by the Trafford Centre! Who wants to go to Trafford Park for a spa? You want a bit of sea! Sefton Council really need to help this area and Southport before it declines into the likes of the way Blackpool is – on its knees.

If Peel thought they could make more money building Therme in Southport, that’s where it would have gone. Morecambe is getting the Eden Project, allegedly, and Centre Parcs don’t go for windswept coastal locations with not-great transport links. Quite who does Sefton, or anyone else, think would be building similar here, assuming the site could be prized out of Britannia’s hands?
If LCRCA was any good, it might be trying to poach the Eden Project from Morecambe given all the delays and uncertainty, like when MCC hoovered up the Football Museum from Preston.

While I agree that it can be difficult to cross the coastal road turning the roundabout into a cross roads without traffic control would make joining the coastal road very dangerous