£10m Southport Hospital grant to bring heat pumps and energy efficiency improvements
Plus: Couple begin 215 mile pilgrimage with no money or internet access
Hello and welcome to the midweek edition of The Southport Lead.
Hospitals are incredibly expensive to run and incredibly expensive to maintain. Southport Hospital in particular is an old site in need of various repairs and upgrades but thanks to newly confirmed government funding, an eight-figure sum is about to help with that.
Today’s main story focuses on this while we also have updates from the Southport Inquiry and hear the tale of a couple who are relying heavily on the faith as they embark on a 215 mile with no money or internet access (it’s hard not to be nervous about how that will go).
£10m awarded for Southport Hospital energy efficiency improvements
By Jamie Lopez
More than £10m has been awarded to install new energy efficient measures at Southport Hospital.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will be given the money from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to carry out works including installing heat pumps.
As making the facility more environmentally friendly and reducing energy costs, hospital bosses say the work will make the facility more comfortable for its users.
The broader funding allocation, which includes £630m of projects including schools, hospitals, care homes and community centres, is Phase Four of the scheme. According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the improvements created by the investment will contribute to an estimated £650 million savings each year up to 2037.
The money awarded to Southport Hospital totals £10,199,706 and will see its heating systems replaced with water source heat pumps, while energy efficiency will be improved through improvements to pipework.
A trust spokesperson said: “This funding brings us closer to achieving our Green Plan and will enable us to replace the current heating and hot water systems with new, sustainable solutions.
“By utilising energy-efficient air source heat pumps, we’ll make Southport Hospital more environmentally friendly and more comfortable for patients, staff, and visitors
It is understood that the decision has no bearing on the outcome of the Shaping Care Together consultation which remains ongoing and will result in either the children’s A&E relocating from Ormskirk to Southport or adult emergency care going in the opposite direction.
More than 20 years have passed since Southport lost its children A&E unit and its return is the preferred option according to the consultation documents. However, leaders insist no final decision has been made and another public information event will take place in Southport on Tuesday, September 30.
As first reported by The Southport Lead, the consultation was launched in July following a review of emergency care which began in spring 2024 and resulted in a desire for the co-location of adult and paediatric services.
It was driven by a desire to both improve care provision and address “operational inefficiencies, workforce pressures, and fragmented care delivery”. Among the benefits, it is argued, will be less reliance on agency staff which has become commonplace while staffing emergency departments in two locations. Staffing changes alone are forecast to save £1.5m annually.
The Southport option is seen as significantly more cost-effective and if progressed will see an extension built to house the new facility and a multi-storey car park added.
Recommended reading
🖊️The Southport Inquiry resumed on Monday with testimony this week coming from DCI Jason Pye of Merseyside Police. Among the coverage, the BBC reports on questions about the killer’s family life.
👑The Prince and Princess of Wales yesterday visited the primary schools attended by the girls who lost their lives in the attack. Ben Haslam’s coverage in the The Liverpool Echo does a good job of explaining what that meant to the families.
🧒From our national title, The Lead, there’s a stark story about the choices women, and their partners, are making when it comes to the rising cost of childcare. Scarlet Hannington reports on strategic c-sections and a birthday date lottery when it comes to promises of funded childcare support despite the expansion of the ‘free’ childcare scheme in recent years. Scarlet’s also penned a very useful edition of The Lead Untangles looking at the cost of childcare.
Couple’s 215 mile walking challenge on a wing and a prayer
By Andrew Brown
A couple have stepped out from Southport on a challenging 215-mile ‘Walking Hearts’ trek across the Pennines.
James and Eleanor Montague have quit their wage-earning jobs so they can “demonstrate that true fortune is found not in accumulating money or material things but in our connection to the source of life and one another”.
Married couple James, from Kent, and Eleanor, from Northumberland, set off from sunny Southport with their backpacks on a gloriously sunny day on Monday, 22nd September 2025 and expect their challenge to Hornsea, on the east Yorkshire coast, to take around four weeks to complete.
They are heading from the Irish Sea to the North Sea.
Their Walking Hearts initiative is their attempt to remember that ‘it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’.
They are setting off with no money or access to it; no smart phone or internet based device; putting their spirit solely on the spirit of God and goodwill.
James and Eleanor said: “We started our 215-mile trek in sunny Southport. It’s the Trans-Pennine Way.
“We’re going kitted out with basic equipment such as tents and sleeping bags and we’ve come with no money and no access to it, no smartphone, or anything like that.
“We’re doing a peace pilgrimage to walk in faith.
“In the flyers which we have printed, which we are passing out to people along the way, one of the quotes we say is ‘it is better to light the candle than curse the darkness’.
“We’re living in such a dark world at the moment with so much conflict, so much consumerism, so much chaos, so much corruption, and we just wanted to shine a little light and connect with god and goodwill and to remind ourselves and one another about the power of that. Taking small little steps to walk in faith but also walking for those who can’t.
“There are so many people in the world who can’t walk whether they’re tied up in war situations, whether it’s through famine, healthcare, disabilities, a lot of people are suffering.
“We just wanted to prayerfully walk in peaceful pilgrimage in solidarity with all those who can’t and to connect with lovely people along the way in this beautiful country.
“We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful country with beautiful landscapes with such diverse people.
“We want to draw strength and inspiration from all of that along the way.
“We also want to demonstrate that life can be so rich and beautiful when we let go of all the clutter and just walk in living simplicity with very little.
“We don’t need very much but we get a lot of inner fulfillment.
“We’re asking people if they could put a prayer up for us so that we can complete this. We are hoping to meet and connect with like-spirited people along the way to give some encouragement.
“If anyone wants to connect with us please get in touch, or come and walk with us. We’re available.”
They added: “So what has inspired us to want to do this? Firstly, we hope to demonstrate that true fortune is found not in accumulating money or material things but in our connection to the source of life and one another.
“We’ve quit our wage-warning jobs to freely share our time and skills with others, and we’ll be looking for opportunities to be available in this way over the course of our journey.
“Secondly, in anticipation of where the world is heading, we’re learning to live more simply, with less reliance on pervasive and addictive internet technology, and with less dependence on the profit-based economic system that is having such a devastating impact on humanity.
“Thirdly, we’re embarking on this adventure because we love walking. This country is rich with beautiful landscapes and diverse people that we intended to draw strength and inspiration from along the way.”
If you’d like to connect with James and Eleanor them on their trek please email:walkinghearts@outlook.com; call or message them on 07360623641; or visit walking-hearts.weebly.com