Decision imminent on Southport A&E plan
A town hall meeting heard the latest on plans to relocate emergency services
Hello and welcome to the midweek edition of The Southport Lead.
Last year, this newsletter was the first outlet to report on plans to relocate A&E services in a move which will likely see an emergency children’s department come back to Southport after more than two decades.
A major consultation on the plans - which include an alternative option of moving the adult A&E to Ormskirk instead - followed and yesterday, The Southport Lead was the only outlet with a reporter present as an update on that process was presented at Southport Town Hall. Today’s newsletter detail what was heard and, crucially, what comes next.
The Southport Lead marks its one-year anniversary in January so to celebrate we’re offering 30% off monthly and annual subscriptions for the entire month. That means you can get an annual subscription for just £34.30 or pay £3.49 a month, a little more than the cost of two hours’ parking in Southport town centre. Use this link to take advantage of the offer.
Southport briefing
🧑⚖️ The owners of an investment company which collapsed after a police raid have been declared bankrupt. As reported by The Times, the operators of The 79th Group were adjudged bankrupt by Liverpool county court last week in direct relation to efforts to investigate the company’s affairs. From its headquarters at Southport Business Park, the business has international operations and raked in hundreds of millions of pounds in investments but is now feared to be one of the biggest Ponzi schemes ever seen in the UK. The bankruptcies will allow insolvency practitioners to trace funds from the personal assets of the individuals involved to see if recoveries can be made for those owed money by the company.
🍟 A drive-thru restaurant could be built near Kew roundabout under newly submitted plans. Developers want to knock down the IMO Car Wash at Kew Retail Park to replace it with the 24 hour operation which has been tied to an unnamed national operator. If approved, it is said the development would create 10 full-time and 30 part-time jobs and “act as a catalyst for further investment” in the surrounding area.
✊ Sefton Council has agreed to formally support the Together Alliance, a new campaign opposing the far right. Dozens of organisations have signed up to support Together and councillors voted to endorse its message of “hope over fear” at a full council meeting. The supported motion also called on the council to challenge narratives of division and racism promoted by far-right politicians, commit to fairness and accuracy in rebutting far-right mistruths furthering a spirit of solidarity across the borough’s communities. The motion was proposed by Cllr Peter Harvey, Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Street Scene, who said: “The Together Alliance is supported by UK charities, unions, civil society organisations, politicians and other individuals, offering a platform of “love, unity and hope. At a time when representatives of the far right minority are feeling emboldened to spout hatred and the politics of poison, The Together Alliance is advocating hope over fear.” The alliance is planning to carry out a demonstration in London on March 28th and is committed.
Decision looms for children’s A&E plan
By Jamie Lopez
Health bosses will announce the outcome of a consultation on the future of Southport’s A&E services in the coming weeks.
As first reported by The Southport Lead in July, NHS leaders want to locate both children’s and adults’ A&E departments in a single location rather than the current setup where one each is located at Southport and Ormskirk.
Named Shaping Care Together, a long-running programme was set up to examine how to make services more efficient across the two hospitals and bring down running costs while improving health outcomes. That led to the plan to co-locate the services and potentially bring paediatric A&E services back to the town more than two decades after they were lost.
A consultation on the plan was held last year, during which it was made clear that the preferred option was locating both services together at Southport. According to forecasts for each option, locating both at the Southport site would be quicker, significantly cheaper and cause less disruption than if Ormskirk was chosen.
A Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) from Sefton Council and Lancashire County Council met at Southport Town Hall yesterday and heard that a report outlining the outcome of the consultation will be published in early February.
