The owners and managers of retail stores remaining open, and doing good trade in Southport today, (against all the odds) should be commended, The majority keep their shop fronts tidy, have regular window cleaners and they rightly deserve to do well, but they are being drastically let down and hampered by the owners of empty premises being left in a abandoned state, as in pictures below.



A tremendous amount more could be done to improve matters. When a householders garden is left in a mess, they are ordered by the council to correct matters, the owners of these properties should also be brought to book.

The picture below is a grand example of what, with a little imagination and negotiation, can easily be achieve, to greatly improve matters. On Lord Street North The Bag and Baggage store has closed and Gallery 1 remains open, and it seems arrangements have been made, to fill the shop window next door with a wonderful display of art works from Gallery 1.




The owners of these retail outlets should be congratulated for their initiative. It may be a good idea to offer an award for the best effort made to enhance the eyesores of these empty shops , before the holiday season starts, to encourage others to follow this lead. The effort made by the proprietor of Gallery 1 would be high on the list no doubt.

The recession is not going to go on forever, and one day Southport will become a Classic Resort again, with a town centre we can be proud of, all stores trading and flowers spilling from all the flowerbeds and planters. In the meantime, we all have to make every effort, to do the best we can.

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I agree with the fact that this is bad for business but i think think this site is deluded if it thinks the council cares one bit or ever will!!!!

These are private premises, it is up to the owners / agents to keep them up to scratch, it is in their interests to keep them looking attractive to potential tenants.

This is happening all over the country with the exclusion of a few small towns in the SE (Who's councils have not had cuts in funding). It's tragic but it must be said QLocal very rarely does anything to promote a positive image of the town... Search Southport and the top results direct you to this view of the town, well done.

I think this is true, southport is classic

I would like to describe southport in 5 words:

1. iconic
2. peaceful
3. gorgeous
4. old
5. homely

from this 5 words i can understand that southport is a good town and means well for pedestrians

Originally Posted by goodoldrichard

I think this is true, southport is classic

I would like to describe southport in 5 words:

1. iconic
2. peaceful
3. gorgeous
4. old
5. homely

from this 5 words i can understand that southport is a good town and means well for pedestrians

One could only apply one of the selected adjectives to describe this town.

Maybe if you spent less time slagging the town & more time promoting & shopping in it then we wudnt have so many empty shops.

While I agree with your point in some of the pictures you have posted, you have to appreciate that most of these are privately owned buildings, and this, the responsibility of the individual landlords. However; i don't see what is wrong with the old Sayers unit, it's now clean & tidy rather than behind a big blue board with rusty scaffolding! (Much like the arts centre for 2 years) . And, as for the Famous Footwear shop, its been left very clean and tidy. This company went into administration before Christmas. Maybe you should spare a thought to all of these innocent people who no longer have jobs in our town, rather than whether you like the look of it or not. Because I bet your not much to look at either!

Typical British mentality towards a problem that is too deep rooted to fix. I lived in Southport for 25 yrs and now live in Canada. The fact is, if people didn’t throw litter on the street as much as they do there wouldn’t be all this crap gathering in doorways.
But you choose to blame, councils, owners and landlords. Always somebody else’s problem to fix.There is no pride in the UK, people will let their dogs do their business all over the streets and think nothing of just walking away, or if they do pick it up they then throw it onto someone else’s property.

As for this "Classic resort" BS, Maybe 20yrs ago I would agree, now, it`s been left to rot in disrepair.

Would of been true 30 years ago,but now the place is a run down SH*t HOLE and will stay that way until we get rid of Sefton and the vile corrupt scum that run the council,The town centre problems are totally down to the parking no one wants to come here any more,i have moved both my business out of southport one of them employs 600 people,council Harassment the other we got sick of people calling us telling us they dont want to come to southport because they have had parking tickets,The whole town since managed by the "Why should they live like that brigade in Bootle" Is a run down unkempt dirty mess,which is now being ghettoised,Time we stop kidding ourselves and do something about a council who cant even keep the coast road open

Originally Posted by oldduffer

One could only apply one of the selected adjectives to describe this town.

Originally Posted by flyboy

Would of been true 30 years ago,but now the place is a run down SH*t HOLE and will stay that way until we get rid of Sefton and the vile corrupt scum that run the council,The town centre problems are totally down to the parking no one wants to come here any more,i have moved both my business out of southport one of them employs 600 people,council Harassment the other we got sick of people calling us telling us they dont want to come to southport because they have had parking tickets,The whole town since managed by the "Why should they live like that brigade in Bootle" Is a run down unkempt dirty mess,which is now being ghettoised,Time we stop kidding ourselves and do something about a council who cant even keep the coast road open

Oh come off it, it's happening everywhere. To say people don't come just because of parking is quite frankly ridiculous, every town of a similar size charges to park and some charge ALLOT more.

I can only guess you are trolling to say you have taken your business elsewhere employing 600 people, I have never known 600 people to be even employed by a single employer in Southport (Other than the council), let alone close and move.

It is the people that make a town, if enough of them don't give a s**t bad things happen.

When the O2 shop underneath the Scarisbrick closed down, the hotel put some nice posters in the windows. They soon disappeared,presumably the hotel was told they were not allowed to use the empty premises as advertising space - or were told to pay for it. Such a shame as it looked much better than it does now, an empty mess greeting anyone arriving to stay at one of the town's larger hotels.

Why not offer these empty shops to charity shops?

Maybe a start could be made on cleaning up Chapel St. Under the benches there are hundreds of cigarette ends. They go along with a cleaner, which has probably cost the earth, but no attempt is made to clean underneath the stone benches. Also parking is a BIG problem, I rarely go into town for the very reason and I cannot be the only person giving the town centre a wide berth.

Its the parking it puts people off all the towns that have abandoned it are thriving,no where did i say i employ 600 people in southport and it shows just how small minded the mentality is here there are at least 20 company's in southport with a larger workforce than that,and you are quite frankly ridiculous

Originally Posted by Stella-man

Oh come off it, it's happening everywhere. To say people don't come just because of parking is quite frankly ridiculous, every town of a similar size charges to park and some charge ALLOT more.

I can only guess you are trolling to say you have taken your business elsewhere employing 600 people, I have never known 600 people to be even employed by a single employer in Southport (Other than the council), let alone close and move.

It is the people that make a town, if enough of them don't give a s**t bad things happen.