An expert team is assembled to fix and reopen the Victorian pier in Southport but Sefton Council still needs to raise another £10m before the work can go ahead. Tony McDonough reports
Sefton Council is still seeking at least £10m to bring Southport Pier back into use despite appointing a specialist team to fix the Victorian structure.
In June 2023 LBN reported that the pier, which first opened to the public in 1860, would remain closed for the foreseeable future. Freezing temperatures in December 2022 caused “significant and unavoidable damage” to the structure.
In September Sefton Council estimated it could cost around £13m to get the pier fixed and open again. But it admitted that it simply did not have the money and was pushing the Government for support.
On Monday the authority said it had finalised a “specialist team” for the delivery of the Southport Pier refurbishment project.
AE Yates, which has recently completed detailed exploratory and investigation works on Southport Pier, is the latest addition to the project team. It has been chosen as the contractor to support the next phase of design and planning works required.
Sefton Council has already agreed to borrow £3m to fund the replacement of the decking of the pier. But this still leaves it at least £10m short of the money it needs to complete the whole job and get the pier reopened.
Council chief executive Phil Porter said: “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.”
He added that a report will now be drafted by the authority in which all options and next steps will be outlined.
This selection of A E Yates, which has a track record of working on large scale refurbishment projects, follows on from its detailed explorations of the Pier’s steel structure.
It helped to set out the scale of challenge faced by Sefton Council as it continues to seek additional funding to restore the Pier to its former glory.
An A E Yates spokesperson said: “We are delighted to be selected by Sefton Council under a pre-construction services agreement to be part of this important and prestigious project in the centre of Southport.
“The Pier is such a well-known attraction in the North-West and we are excited to be an integral part of the team helping to bring it back to life for locals and visitors alike.”
Other experts on the team include Southport-based RAL Architects Gardiner & Theobold, structural engineers Fairhurst, Steve A Hunt & Associates and Pegasus Planning.
“We held an intensive tender process to ensure we have the best of the best working on the pier and we are confident AE Yates are the partners for us,” Phil Porter added.
“Many will already be aware of AE Yates for carrying out the recent intensive exploratory and investigation works, which have built on previous structural surveys and have given a more accurate picture of steelwork that was installed more than 22 years ago.
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“AE Yates and our project team will now work to finalise all drawings, construction details and a programme of future works including detailed costings.
“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.”