Have your say on Bootle Town Centre's transformation

Ahead of work starting early next year, the Council is keen to hear from the community about their thoughts on the future of Bootle Strand and the surrounding areas.

Working in partnership with Counter Context, the consultation will run from Thursday 29 August to Thursday 19 September.

Local residents and businesses will be invited to share their thoughts on the future of Bootle Strand and the wider plans for the town centre.

Among the discussion topics will be accessibility, new designs for Mons Square and suggested uses for the former M&S building.

Following the consultation, all comments and feedback will be collected by a dedicated team. These will then be used to shape the next phases of work, with a planning application due to be submitted later this year.

A summary of feedback will be made available to the public shortly after the end of the consultation. As the transformation project progresses, further engagement and consultation will take place with residents and businesses.

Councillor Paulette Lappin, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Economy and Skills, said:

“As always, consultation is a vital part of our planning, and we hope residents will take the opportunity to have their say,

“We’re entering an exciting period of transformation in Bootle. We want the changes to reflect the needs of residents, businesses and visitors, and to help us achieve our goal of making Bootle an attractive destination for all these groups.

“Working together has always had brilliant results, such as Salt and Tar, which has been a big success. I’m sure that we will get lots of valuable suggestions and I look forward to hearing what people have to say.

“I encourage everyone who lives in, works in or visits Bootle to get involved and let us know their thoughts.”

Bootle Town Hall. Credit: Sefton Council

Sefton Council was awarded £20 million of funding from central Government to move forward with its plans for Bootle after purchasing the Strand shopping centre in 2017. Current plans include transforming the centre to offer a mixture of shopping, leisure, hospitality, health care and education services.

As part of its plans, the Council opened Salt and Tar, an events space next to the Bootle stretch of the Liverpool Leeds Canal, in 2022. Since opening, the venue has played host to comedy festivals, community events, winter markets and the successful Music Weekender. This year saw Sir Tom Jones, Status Quo and Red Rum Club take to the stage, with over 12,000 attendees across four days.

Work on the wider area is due to begin early next year, with the first phase set for completion in 2026.

People can share their views by visiting the drop-in sessions, which will be held:

Friday 6 September, 11am to 4pm at the Strand Information Centre, opposite Greggs
Wednesday 11 September, 2pm to 7pm in 329 Stanley Road (the soon to be Kingsley & Co unit)

A webinar will also be held soon with the date and timings to be confirmed shortly.

Information will also be available online at www.sefton.gov.uk/BootleStrand, and comments or questions can be submitted to strandfuture@sefton.gov.uk .