SouthportTony CorfieldSefton Council

Destination Development

Creating England’s Classic Resort

Tony CorfieldSefton 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 – 1996-2001yes, the sea does come in!

Ocean Plaza – 20031st large scale private sector investment for many years

Pier – 2002not many places building Piers!

Marine Way Bridge – 2003connecting the seafront to the town

Nevill Street – 2006public realm

Chapel Street – 2007pedestrianisation scheme

Splashworld - 2007Visitor Attraction

Lord Street – 20082nd 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. The visitor economy2. Town centre management3. The environment4. Employment and businesses5. Housing6. Accessibility, transport and parking7. Sustainable Communities

Southport Investment StrategyVision

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