“I call it the three-hour town. That is how long people get when they pay for parking. You watch them come in, park up and then leave three hours later.”
In the 1960s, Jean Forshaw worked in the Scarisbrick Hotel in the town centre of Southport - and she loved it.
“There has been a big deterioration in the upkeep of the town, look at the parks and the cemeteries - absolutely awful,” explains Sean, who has lived in Southport his entire life. Lord Street’s glamour even attracted a young Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte - the future Napoléon lll and nephew of the all-conquering emperor - to lodge in the town centre for a short while in the mid 19-th century. It is suggested the area was the inspiration for a number of the tree-lined boulevards found in Paris today, including the
“Southport is fascinating,” explains Stuart Wilks-Heeg, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, who lives just down the coast in Crosby. The Lib Dems - who hung on to the constituency for twenty straight years before Mr Moore’s first victory, are projected to finish fourth, behind Reform UK.
The Wayfarers Arcade, one of the most authentic and elegant Victorian shopping arcades in the north of England today represents something of a ghost town.“Everybody is disappointed to see the big shops like Beales closing. It feels like there is nothing for people to come to Southport for anymore”, explains the 85-year-old.
“I don’t like What Rishi Sunak is doing, he isn’t getting us anywhere. We need change, but what is the change? I haven’t got any trust in politicians”“I think it is time for a political change, not just locally, but nationally,” he says, adding: “What has been going on is just a disgrace.” The costs of the repair job could balloon as high as £13 million and no reopening date has been given as yet. For those relying on the dwindling tourism offer of this town, this is another bitter and potentially existential blow.
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