Sefton says most people in its Town Hall Gardens consultation backed the £10m rebuild, and over 70% would use the gardens more. Planning comes next.

The designs for the £10 million rebuild of Southport’s Town Hall Gardens are now public, and residents have until 5pm on Monday 5 October to comment on them (Sefton Council consultation portal).

Updated 23 October: Sefton Council has published the result. It says the majority of people who responded to this second round fully support the plans, and that more than 70% said they would use the gardens more often if the scheme goes ahead. It has not published how many people responded to this round, or what share objected. The design team is now finalising the planning application. Details are in what the consultation found, below.

Updated 6 October: the consultation portal now shows this round as “Closed 5 Oct 2026”. The council has not announced an extension. (Your Sefton Your Say)

This is the second and final round of public consultation before Sefton Council submits a planning application for the site between Lord Street and The Atkinson. The first round ran in late 2025. What is on show now is what the council intends to build.

A scale model, the drawings and a feedback form are on display at The Atkinson on Lord Street for a fortnight, and staff will be there to answer questions on two dates.

The dates you need

Key dates: consultation opened Monday 21 September 2026; staffed exhibition event Friday 25 September, 12pm to 4pm; staffed exhibition event Wednesday 30 September, 3pm to 7pm; consultation closes 5pm Monday 5 October 2026; planning application follows.

What When Where
Exhibition, drop in Mon 21 Sep to Mon 5 Oct, Mon to Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat 10am to 2pm The Atkinson, Lord Street
Meet the project team Fri 25 September, 12pm to 4pm The Atkinson, Lord Street
Meet the project team Wed 30 September, 3pm to 7pm The Atkinson, Lord Street
Comments close 5pm, Mon 5 October Online, phone or post

You can respond online through Your Sefton Your Say, by freephone on 0800 080 3263, by email to southport@devcomms.co.uk, or by post to Freepost DEVCOMMS.

One caution on the published material. The council’s news release says the consultation “begins today (Monday September 21st)” but is itself dated 18 September, and later says responses will be analysed “following the end of the consultation in September”. The consultation portal is the document to go by: it records the consultation as opening on 21 September and closing on 5 October 2026.

What is proposed

The council describes four connected character areas:

  • The Performance Plaza, a flexible civic space for events through the year
  • The Mega Ripples, a play space with water mist features, mounds and lighting
  • Celebration Dunes, a celebratory garden with planting inspired by the coast
  • The Botanical Garden, planting and seating spilling out from the Town Hall

The published key also lists an Eastbank Street footpath, “green edges” drawing people in from Lord Street, an open route giving access to the three heritage buildings, extensive seating, and controlled vehicle access for servicing (Sefton Council).

Council leader Cllr Marion Atkinson said the water features answer the strongest theme from the first round of consultation, and link back to the town’s Sea Bathing Lake and its history as a hydrotherapy resort. She said the Celebration Dunes are “a not-so-subtle nod to the stunning ecologically rich dunescapes of Birkdale and Ainsdale” (Sefton Council, 18 September 2026).

What is going, and what is staying

This is the part worth reading closely before you comment. The council’s own project page sets out what is under consideration for removal:

  • the two vacant pavilion buildings, formerly a bar and a restaurant
  • the storage unit, a listed former deck chair store next to the Town Hall
  • the fountain installed in memory of Princess Diana in 1997, which the council says has significant maintenance costs and repeated technical faults

The council says a new fountain, or fountains, may form part of the new design, and that both King Charles III and Prince William have given the proposals their full support. The Town Hall, The Atkinson, Cambridge Arcade and Crown Buildings all stay. The council says the scheme will end with more trees on the site, not fewer (Sefton Council project page).

The same page says the gardens will double in size.

Who is paying for it

The £10 million is made up of three pledges:

Source Amount
UK Government £5 million
Sefton Council £2.5 million
Other Liverpool City Region councils £2.5 million

The £2.5 million from elsewhere in the city region comes from Liverpool, St Helens, Knowsley, Halton and Wirral. The council states that the money was given for this project and cannot be spent elsewhere, which is its answer to residents who have asked why it is not going to Southport Pier instead.

Why the gardens

The project came from the families of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King. After the attack in July 2024, the space outside The Atkinson became the place where thousands of people gathered and left tributes, and the families approached Sefton Council and central government about creating a permanent thank you to the town.

Sefton Council is the landowner and the accountable body. The concept design is being led by KKA Ltd, a firm of architects; the council states that Elsie Stancombe’s uncle is an architect at KKA and personally designed the concept.

One timetable that no longer holds

The council’s project page still says detailed design and public consultation would take place “through the latter part of 2025”, with site works starting in 2026 and completion aimed for 2027. That page was last updated on 5 August 2025 and has not been revised since.

The current position, from the consultation now running, is different: responses close on 5 October, the design team then considers whether changes are needed, and a planning application follows. The council says any construction timetable remains subject to consultation feedback, planning approval, technical development and procurement. No start date has been published.

Sefton’s own Planning Committee will determine the application, and there will be a further round of standard public consultation at that stage.

What the consultation found

Sefton Council published its summary of the second round on 21 October (Sefton Council). It says more than 300 people took part across the two rounds since 2025. Most respondents in the second round said they fully support the plans.

The figures it gives:

  • more than 70% supported the proposed Botanical Gardens outside the Town Hall entrance
  • more than 70% said they would use the gardens more often if the plans go ahead
  • more than a third said the new gardens would feel safer and more welcoming than now, the most common single response
  • more than half of respondents said they visit the gardens several times a week

The council also says the second round reached more than 1,200 town centre homes by leaflet, and that hundreds of schoolchildren gave their views at sessions at The Atkinson.

The release does not give the number of responses to the second round, or the share against. Council leader Cllr Marion Atkinson acknowledged there was objection. “In any consultation there is always objection and it is impossible to cater to everybody’s desires,” she said. She added that the consultation “found significant common ground among supporters and opponents alike”.

Two things have changed or been confirmed since the designs went on show:

  • A low wall at the front. After feedback, the design team is looking at a new low-level wall at the front of the proposed Celebration Gardens, to keep in character with the rest of Lord Street.
  • What stays. The council says the Grade II listed pavilion will be repaired and re-roofed, and the listed telephone kiosks, mature trees and benches kept. Non-heritage features would be dismantled carefully so they can be reused elsewhere in the town centre. It puts the net gain at 28 trees.

The families of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe, whose idea the scheme is, said in a joint statement that they “remain fully committed to delivering this project as a way of saying thank you to Southport”. They added: “We know there is much to do still before planning approval and before the works start on site.”

No date has been given for the planning application or for work to start.

What it means for you

  • If you missed the consultation, the next chance to comment is the planning application. Sefton’s Planning Committee will decide it, and it will go out for the standard public consultation first. We will report it when it is lodged.
  • If you use the gardens now, the plans consulted on put the two vacant pavilions, the storage unit and the Diana fountain up for removal. The planning application is where to object if that matters to you.
  • If you run an event in the gardens, note that no construction dates have been published, so nothing is yet known about when the space would close.
  • If you are coming into town, our parking guide covers the Lord Street car parks, and the roadworks and travel page has what is closed this week.

Sources