Could Sefton Labour lose a key vote on Southport’s aviary?

We take a look at the maths ahead of a key vote over the controversial decision to close Botanic Garden’s aviary

When Sefton Council announced plans last month to close the nearly 90-year-old aviary at Botanic Gardens in Southport, it didn’t just provoke a backlash among local residents, it quickly became one of the borough’s most controversial political issues.

Residents launched petitions, hundreds attended a public meeting called by Southport Labour MP Patrick Hurley and social media has since been awash with criticism, speculation and proposed alternatives to the closure. Now the issue is heading to the council chamber.

Councillors from across Sefton will gather at Southport Town Hall tonight for the first proper full council meeting since May’s local elections, where one of the motions up for debate focuses squarely on the future of the aviary.

The motion, submitted by Liberal Democrat councillor Daniel Lewis, calls on the council to allocate the proceeds from the sale of the Botanic Gardens lodge towards supporting a Heritage Lottery Fund bid being developed by the Botanic Gardens Community Association.

According to the motion, using the money in this way could significantly increase the value of local fundraising by helping unlock much larger amounts of external funding, which could support the upkeep of the aviary.

The Heritage Lottery funding bid was announced by Sefton Council last year, when then cabinet member Mhairi Doyle spoke of an appeal for match funding as part of the bid playing a ‘vital role in preserving the historic, cultural and social importance‘ of the Botanic Gardens, which houses the aviary.

Cllr Lewis’ motion states: ‘The Botanic Gardens Community Association is bidding for Heritage Lottery Funding, which would allow the association to leverage nine times the money raised — turning every £100 raised into £1,000.’

It asks councillors to agree: ‘That the proceeds from the sale of No. 2 Lodge be allocated to support both the Botanic Gardens Community Association’s Heritage Lottery bid and the continued operation of the Botanic Gardens aviary, with the allocation of funding determined to maximise the long-term benefit to the Botanic Gardens and its visitors.’

Speaking to the Monitor about the motion, Cllr Lewis said; ‘I really hope we can find a way to get investment into the gardens and save the aviary. It seems obvious and right that the money from the sale of the lodge should be used to support the Botanic Gardens’.

The motion comes as many local residents continue to question whether alternatives to closure have been fully explored.

Sefton Council previously told the Monitor, when we recently reported on the row, that other options had been considered, specifically: ‘A potential alternative of seeking expressions of interest from organisations suitably skilled in animal welfare has been considered. However, this was decided against as previous attempts to find a suitably qualified and skilled body in the past yielded nothing. Additionally, even if a new operator was to be found, the same welfare concerns remain, considering the size and condition of the infrastructure.’

When the council announced the decision at the end of June, it said the aviary no longer met modern welfare standards and would require substantial investment to bring it up to standard. It also said the aviary currently costs around £60k a year to operate.

The decision to close the aviary had, however, been taken several months earlier when councillors approved the local authority’s budget back in February. The saving appeared in the budget report as a proposal to close the aviary and save that £60k a year, rather than as a proposal framed around concerns over bird welfare.

Since the announcement, some of the debate has focused on whether outside funding could help preserve the aviary rather than closing it altogether, although whether tonight’s motion succeeds is far from certain.

In previous years, Labour’s large majority on Sefton Council would have made the outcome fairly predictable, but May’s local elections has changed the arithmetic considerably.

Labour remains the largest group and still controls the council, but with 36 out of 66 councillors it has a much reduced majority after losing 15 seats in May following gains by the Liberal Democrats, Independents, Greens and Reform. That means every attendance at full council now matters for the ruling group as opposition councillors combined make up 30 seats on the council.

If Labour councillors all attend and vote together against the motion, it is unlikely to pass. But, absences, abstentions or councillors choosing to vote differently could easily tip the balance or, at the very least, make the result considerably closer than similar votes might have been in recent years.

If the Labour group votes against the motion, it would take just seven Labour councillors to be absent, abstain or vote against their own group, assuming every opposition councillor backed the motion, for it to be carried.

Of course, we won’t know until tonight exactly how councillors will vote and if passed, the motion would commit the council to supporting the proposal - although any allocation of the lodge sale proceeds would still need to follow the council’s decision making process - but a defeat for the administration on such a high profile issue would inevitably be politically significant. The debate is also likely to provide the first indication of where councillors from all parties now stand on one of the most controversial local decisions of the past few months.

The meeting takes place at Southport Town Hall this evening from 6.30pm. There’s lots more on the agenda too and the Monitor, as no doubt many others, will be watching along with keen interest to see how many councillors attend and how the debates go down.

If you can’t make it to the town hall tonight, you can watch along too from the comfort of your own home right here.

*This story has been updated to include additional details about the funding bid and a comment from Cllr Lewis on his motion.

before you leg it down to the town hall …

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