Council chaos delays Southport victims garden plan

Police were called to a chaotic Sefton Council meeting that had to abandoned after protestors began "screaming and shouting" at councillors.

The local authority was due to discuss plans for a major revamp of Southport's Town Hall gardens in memory of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Aguiar and Bebe King, when the protest took place.

It began when a member of the public about whether the council had turned down any applications for 5G masts on health grounds, before descending into a row.

The Mayor of Sefton June Burns halted proceedings after one of the protestors shouted at a councillor to "shut up".

People in the public gallery were asking questions about issues including immigration, net zero and 5G masts but became increasingly frustrated and vocal about the responses they were receiving.

The mayor adjourned the meeting on Thursday before much of the agenda could be discussed.

The meeting re-started to enable a group of teenagers to present a petition they had launched to get a BMX park built, but was then halted again and the police called.

Members of the public shouted "shame on you" and "cowards" as the councillors left the chamber at the meeting on Thursday night.

One of the protestors was heard making derogatory comments about a female councillor.

The meeting had to be abandoned before approval could be given to plans to create a new family-friendly space in the Town Hall gardens on Lord Street.

Earlier this year, the families of the three young girls who were murdered in last summer's knife attacks secured funding from the combined authority and the government for the project.

Mike Prendergast, leader of the Conservative opposition group, said: "As an opposition councillor, I don't always like the answer that I am given but I don't scream and shout during the meeting to get my point across."

He said there "has to be a process and a procedure and we want to get people more engaged in politics" but what happened at the meeting " isn't going to help with that".

Prendergast said: "We wanted to ask questions on behalf of the people of Southport but that's now being delayed because a small number of people decided to take it upon themselves to decide that their opinions were more important than other people's."

The council's Liberal Democrat group issued a statement which said the suspension of the meeting marked a "sad moment for local democracy" in Sefton.

It said: "Residents deserve and need to have their say but it has to be conducted in the right forum.

"Shouting from the gallery just throws meetings into disarray and means no one can be heard properly."

Sefton's next full council meeting will take place in September.

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