The UK’s second longest pier could reopen again next year in a major boost to the seaside town – after it was closed since 2022 for repair work. The 3,536 ft-long Southport Pier, in Merseyside, that was first opened in 1860 but shut over safety fears in December 2022 with an estimated repair bill cost of £13m.
Last month Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the pier would benefit from cash from a new fund aimed at speeding up “forgotten” local projects. Now Sefton Council leader Cllr Marion Atkinson said they were ready to start repair work “within six to eight weeks” and it could take just over a year.
Cllr Atkinson said she was “delighted” at the funding announcement and was awaiting further details.
She said: “We’re absolutely wanting to get on with it. I think it will probably take between 12 to 14 months for it to go from start to finish.
“We’ll be looking at ways in which, if we can, to get it done as quickly as we possibly can, but it does take a lot of time because there’s a lot of work.”
The UK’s longest pier is in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, built in 1830 and 6,900 feet (2,100 m) long – and is even the longest pier in the world.
Southport Pier was shut by the council in 2022 on the advice of structural engineers.
The closure has had a significant impact on the town’s leisure and tourism industry with many residents and local business owners keen to see the pier reopened.
Reeves described the pier as “an iconic symbol of coastal heritage” when she announced the funding boost in June from the Growth Mission Fund, and said the investment would create jobs and new business opportunities.
Reeves unveiled wide-ranging plans to allocate £600bn in capital government departments over the next three to four years, including £280 million more spend until 2029 to tackle the asylum seeker crisis, £30 billion for nuclear projects and a £29bn rise for the NHS in a bid to reverse sluggish growth.
She said: “We will establish a growth mission fund to expedite local projects that are important for growth projects, projects like Southport Pier, an iconic symbol of coastal heritage, which has stood empty since 2022, […] where investment would create jobs and new business opportunities.”
Southport’s Labour MP Patrick Hurley hailed the announcement in June as great news for Southport, saying: “We’ve got a commitment from the Chancellor at the dispatch box to support the project.
“What that support means, in concrete and practical terms, is that there’s going to be funding made available to make sure that the pier can be reopened.
“It exciting and by the end of the summer, we will have specific, concrete, practical proposals, along with timescales and dedicated amounts of funding from central Government that will allow the pier to reopen, and we’ll make sure that Southport gets its groove back.”
Meanwhile Ms Atkinson said lessons will be learned from a previous unsuccessful attempt to repair the pier and the authority will ensure the right materials and construction methods are used.
Mr Hurley recently called for a National Pier Service – to protect Britain’s 61 surviving piers – as part of a wider demand for more support for the country’s coastal communities, including a dedicated Minister for Coastal towns.
MP Mr Hurley said seaside towns had specific challenges based around their seasonal economies, adding: “Bed and breakfasts, 2p slot machines, fun fairs and theme parks – all of the things that we go to the seaside for are all struggling across the country.”
He said towns needed a “specific policy response” to support them and the government needed a coastal communities strategy.
“So many piers are dilapidated,” he said. “They’ve been stood in the sea for well over a century, and the salt water takes its toll.”
Mr Hurley has approached the National Trust to propose working together to maintain and run some piers. The heritage charity said it was in communication with the MP.
The UK’s leading charity for piers, the National Piers Society, which was founded in 1979 by the poet Sir John Betjeman, has campaigned to save several piers that would otherwise have vanished.