'Less secrecy, more transparency' - Councillor demands clarity on massive £73m Southport project

The £73m Marine Lake Events Centre (MLEC) is one of a number of schemes being developed across the borough, but is by far the most ambitious – and the most costly.

MLEC was approved after the successful bid for £37.5m of Town Deal funding for Southport and has benefited from £17.7m of funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The site clearance is already well underway and it was expected that construction works would start at the end of this year. The LDRS confirmed on September 25 this is no longer the case.

A report on the Marine Lake Events Centre will be presented at a Sefton Council cabinet meeting on Bootle Town Hall on October 2. Councillors will be asked to approve a series of recommendations including official acknowledgement of the project’s “budgetary pressures” and its procurement process.

The report also provides an update on progress made to date under the Pre-Construction Service Agreement (PCSA) with Graham Construction (GC). The council had previously confirmed GC as the preferred development partner to complete the MLEC project and announced in March that construction work was scheduled to start at the end of this year.

It is the second time a construction agreement has been terminated. Back in December 2023, the council confirmed it had ended the pre-construction services agreement with Kier Group. Responding to the update, Sefton Council leader Cllr Marion Atkinson said: “We’ve already engaged new contractors and are progressing with legal mechanisms to ensure the project can move forward.

“This is responsible governance and robust commercial negotiation, not mismanagement. A full update will be presented to Cabinet on Thursday 2nd October, outlining the next steps and reaffirming our commitment to delivering this transformative project.”

As a result of GC’s withdrawal, Liberal Democrat councillors are now calling for a Gateway Review of Sefton Council’s ‘troubled’ Southport Conference Centre project. Cllr John Pugh said the council has ‘unavoidably serious choices to make’ as to how best to use taxpayers money and how much of it to ask for.

A statement by the Lib Dems said: “Effectively the Council has little option now but to carry on. The old conference centre has gone and we have been without a major venue in Southport now for over five years.

“Sefton Council tax payers were always standing £20 million of the total cost of the project, but that figure will now rise and have to be paid back with interest. Sefton Council tax payers are already permanently saddled with £42 million pound re-payments for the ill-judged purchase through borrowing of the Bootle Strand. It’s not as though the impact won’t be felt.”

Cllr Pugh added: “The council is against any scaling down and I think we can all see that losing some elements like the planned lakeside light show would destroy a unique feature of the project.

“The Council is arguing too that any scaling down would lose the top class operator lined up to manage future events.

“No-one imagines that regeneration on this scale is easy. Real world costs can throw out the best laid plans, but moving forward it’s best to be neither stubborn nor defensive, but seek an open review of options.

“Councillors want maximum clarity on future financial commitments, but regrettably Sefton secrecy has meant that too much hitherto has been kept under wraps under the cloak of commercial confidentiality.”

The Lib Dems said a quick Gateway Review would give elected members and council tax payers some reassurance and ‘help validate’ future decisions. Cllr Pugh added: “It is just not wise to delegate entirely the job of finding a way forward to the same people who have struggled to deliver the project at the original cost – without the external frame of reference that a Gateway Review can provide.

“That unfortunately appears to be the route Sefton is going down. A properly published Gateway Review on the other hand that can be shared and scrutinised by the whole Council could give unity and purpose.”

However, Cllr Atkinson responded strongly to the Lib Dem statement, she said: “It is deeply disappointing to see yet another attempt to talk Southport down, especially when so much hard work is being done to deliver a project that will bring over half a million new visitors a year and inject £19 million annually into our local economy.

“Let me be clear – the Town Deal funding is being used responsibly and strategically, and everything we are doing is about securing best value for public finances.

“The Marine Lake Events Centre is the flagship project, but it is part of a wider regeneration programme that includes improvements to public spaces and infrastructure across Southport. These are investments in our future, not wastes of money.”

Cllr Atkinson added: “Southport deserves ambition, not negativity. We will not allow political point-scoring to derail progress. This is about building a better future — and we’re proud to be leading that charge.”