Southport Tony Corfield Sefton Council
Destination Development
Creating England’s Classic Resort Tony Corfield Sefton MBC
What is special & distinctive about Southport?
It has a long history of being regarded as somewhat more stylish and sophisticated than the average resort – ‘a cut above’. Lord St and the ambience it brings to the town’s core leisure/cultural/retail offer Seafront/Beach/Parks & Gardens Championship Links Golf courses (as Capital of England’s Golf Coast) Its elegance and attractiveness Breadth of its offer
What is Southport’s vision? -to become recognised as
‘England’s Classic Resort’
Heritage – exemplary respect for architectural and environmental heritage Pristine Built and Natural Environment – a sense of entering a ‘jewel’ Quality Shopping – strong, distinctive independent retail sector Quality accommodation – variety of product and value for money Quality Food & Beverage – variety of product and value for money Culture – a vibrant and sophisticated programme of cultural activity
How far towards achieving this are we? ‘In the last 12yrs good progress but we still a long way to go on the journey
2 chapters of regeneration delivered so far – both with the core logic of using public infrastructure investment as a catalyst for private sector investment 1st chapter – 1997-2002 Round 3 SRB funded programme that established the basic delivery partnership mechanisms and delivered early projects 2nd chapter – 2002–2008 Southport Action Plan delivering a suite of major public and privately funded capital schemes that generated real destination change in peoples mind – ie the core product offer was obviously improving Over £200m of public & private investment inc three 4star hotels
Sea Wall – 1996-2001 yes, the sea does come in!
Ocean Plaza – 2003 1st large scale private sector investment for many years
Pier – 2002 not many places building Piers!
Marine Way Bridge – 2003 connecting the seafront to the town
Nevill Street – 2006 public realm
Chapel Street – 2007 pedestrianisation scheme
Splashworld - 2007 Visitor Attraction
Lord Street – 2008 2nd phase
Southport Theatre & Conference Centre – 2008 step change in Southport’s conference offer
Southport Investment Strategy 2008 - 2018  Chapter 3 of our regeneration  Themes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
The visitor economy Town centre management The environment Employment and businesses Housing Accessibility, transport and parking Sustainable Communities
Southport Investment Strategy Vision Develop, promote and manage Southport as England’s ‘Classic Resort’ A high quality destination and sustainable, safe and cohesive community, which fully meets the needs of local people and visitors
The Visitor Economy •Marine Park •Events •Conferences •Leisure offer •Retail offer •Golf •Coastline •Culture •Night time economy •Marketing & PR
Town Centre Management •Retail focused •Lord Street •Clean environment •Strong independent retail offer
Built & Natural Environment •Marine Park •Lord Street & its canopies •Cultural Centre •Kings Gardens •Marine Lake
Employment & Business •Business & Investment Centre •Invest Sefton •Integrated Business Support •Sefton@Work •Workzone •Employment Partnership
Housing •Town Lane – 650 units •Government targets •Cohesive communities •Sustainable communities •Affordability •Standards •HMO’s
Accessibility, transport & parking •Transis 2020 •Switch Island •Eastern road access •Rail – Manchester •Parking •Park & Ride •Cycletown
Sustainable communities •Tackle exclusion •Build strong partnerships •Encourage engagement in decision making •Neighbourhood management •Health Inequalities
Headline Objectives (when the economy starts working again)
Marine Park development Pleasureland site – 45 acres Regionally significant leisure based development
Cultural Centre Key Lord St site with real Classic Resort benefit £16m Sea Change / NWDA / Sefton funding
Retail Development Needs to differentiate us from clone towns driven by Lord St and strong independent offer Need modern footplate units over next 10-15 years to win missing brands Experience Retail (Locum)
Lessons learnt
It is vital to have a vision that has real partner buy in Understand your Brand Line up your strategies - Regional/Sub/Regional/Local Develop partnerships that are open, transparent and delivering a real return on investment Don’t give up – we wouldn’t have a new conference offer in Southport if we had given up after the first 3 failed attempts to progress You will never get everyone to agree Develop momentum – it feeds confidence Make sure you understand the 3 dimensional chess game called funding World economic recession • no regeneration vision escapes the effects • There’s pain still to come but a robust customer focussed vision is vital to survive it
What is required to realise the destination’s potential? We need
Time Effort Confidence Determination Money The economy to start working again All of the public sector, not just some of it, to understand the importance of the visitor economy To deliver our vision not merely talk about it. Understand our customers, where their interests are going and what we have to do to continue to attract them
Thank You