How moving Southport into West Lancashire will change dynamic
LAST week the news broke that MPs were making a bid for Southport to leave Sefton to join West Lancashire.
The news came as Southport MP Damien Moore and West Lancs MP Rosie Cooper launched a joint bid to have the boundaries changed so that the town rejoined Lancashire to join up with neighbours Skelmersdale and Ormskirk. A letter sent to Secretary of State For Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Michael Gove MP outlined the pair’s desire for the resort to switch allegiance.
The move has been a long-debated subject ever since the boundaries changed in 1974 with people in Southport being divided over the possibility of a return to Lancashire. Despite years of debate, it hasn’t been highlighted what will actually change.
Other than the town being part of a council that relates to the postcode of the area, it would be switching from effectively a unitary council to a two-tier council which can often cause confusion amongst residents. The move from Sefton Council to Lancashire County Council along with the proposal to have Southport covered by West Lancashire Council would mean different services are covered by the two councils.
The controversial move would see West Lancashire council covering the smaller services such as refuse and recycling, smaller planning applications, council tax, litter and flytipping, support grants that were issued during the pandemic. The county council then look after issues that affect the wider area such as flood risks, elections, schools and health and social care.
Despite the blurred lines over how a two-tier authority works, it can provide stability financially more so than a smaller unitary authority. It also gets rid of a boundary that not many people in the area necessarily relate to.
Sefton is a label that people don’t see as the most relateable due to the size of the area that it covers. People in South Sefton often identify themselves more from Liverpool, whereas Southport, due to its longstanding relationship with Lancashire, has less of an identity rooted in Merseyside.
Being covered by Lancashire County Council and West Lancashire would perhaps provide more of an identifiable boundary than Sefton, a name formed in the 70s. Whether a more relatable and deep-rooted boundary is more important for those living in Southport is debatable but moving into West Lancashire would change the town’s dynamic.
In the letter to Michael Gove, Damien Moore and Rosie Cooper both requested Ainsdale be included in the boundary change. This has come when the boundaries are set to change in Sefton, with parts of Ainsdale not being classed as Southport but as Sefton Central.
There is yet to be an answer with regards to the proposal, with people in the town left divided after they weren’t consulted on the potential move.