SOUTHPORT has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently, as the bar brawl which involved Steven Gerrard was played out via the world's media.
So it is unfortunate that night-time violence in Southport has again come to the fore, after Merseyside Police yesterday suspended the licenses for Coast and Studio 55 after a series of horrific incidents in or near the premises.
Four people were glassed in the head, a man's ear was bitten off and a total of six people have been left permanently scarred - after heading into town with the sole intention of enjoying a night out with friends.
A thriving night-time economy is vitally important for the future of our town, with the livelihoods of hundreds of bar owners and workers, taxi drivers, hoteliers, takeaway workers and restaurateurs all at stake.
The latest incident is a real shame, coming at a time when owners of premises on Waverley Street have spent fortunes on making it more upmarket than it used to be.
Police are sending out the right message by cracking down hard on licensees they feel do not tackle violent incidents adequately enough. Judges must follow that with lengthy sentences for the thugs - cowards - who use bottles and glasses as weapons.
Southport MUST be seen as a safe and attractive place in which people of all ages can come and enjoy themselves.

ANDREW Edwards will take over in the Southport Visiter Editor's chair at the end of the month.

Currently Assistant Editor of the Liverpool ECHO Andrew has been living with his family in Southport for nearly 20 years.

His wife Julie is a revenue officer based in the town, his son Michael, a former Birkdale High pupil is studying English and Irish Studies at Liverpool University and daughter Sarah, 12, is a pupil at Christ the King.

For Andrew, who has 30 years experience on weekly, evening, morning and national newspapers, this is his first editorship.

"From the day I first came into journalism I dreamed of editing my own paper," he said. "That dream has now come true.

"The Visiter is my paper in my town and I look forward to campaigning on behalf of the town and the people who live in it.

"We have got a great team in place and I'm looking forward to working with them.

"Local newspapers are the lifeblood of our communities. People rightly expect their paper to stand up for them, inform them, entertain them and where necessary scrutinise and challenge on their behalf.

"Jane Daly has done a fantastic job as editor delivering on all these fronts and I have a tough act to follow. She is totally committed to our readers and to the people and the organisations who play such a vital role in making Southport tick.

"I aim to make sure that the Visiter is accessible to everybody. The Visiter will be the paper that people turn to when they want to know what is going on in the area, when they need help, when they have a story to tell or when they need to inform others about events in the town. That is what a good community newspaper is all about. I look forward to meeting many new people as I get out and about over the next few weeks and months," said Andrew.

"Most of all I look forward to safeguarding the standards of a truly great local newspaper."

In addition to his role editing the Visiter Andrew is Group Editor for Trinity Mirror's 14 other Merseyside weekly titles, including our Mediamix papers - the Crosby Herald, Formby Times, the Midweek Visiter, Ormskirk and Skelmersdale Advertiser, and the Bootle Times.

l If you want to contact Andrew feel free to email on editor@southportvisiter.co.uk, write to him: The Editor, The Southport Visiter, 26-32 Tulketh Street, Southport, or telephone 01704 398206.

A NEW year for Southport - and a new chief executive for Sefton Council.

Margaret Carney officially started her new role today but it seems that open government may not be high on the agenda.

A request for a photo of Graham Haywood's replacement with her team on her first day, plus a quick chat with her local 'paper, has been turned down by the council press office on the grounds that she is too busy.

While we hope this is not a sign of things to come, we would like to wish Margaret Carney all the best through the course of what will undoubtedly prove to be a challenging 2009 for the authority.

DURING the festive season, shops in Southport were chasing shoppers' pounds like never before.

The credit crunch has bitten hard, meaning that sales in the Christmas rush will have determined whether many stores will stay open in 2009 - or whether they will be forced to close.

It is disgraceful then, that in Southport, Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Neighbouring authorities in Liverpool and Wirral both introduced schemes over December that allowed shoppers to park for free over Christmas - but not in Southport.

Here, despite a 'comprehensive' report into all aspects of parking that was published during the autumn, council officers and councillors neglected to consider local traders.

By the time they gave it thought, in November, they considered it would be 'too late' to introduce.

Such apathy is nothing short of scandalous.

When they are putting together their New Year's resolutions for 2009, Sefton Council MUST make it a priority to see what it can do to help local shops in what will be some very challenging months ahead.

It is time Nero stopped fiddling, and urgently begins fire-fighting before it's too late.

SATURDAY was a sad day for our town, with the closure of Woolworth's on Chapel Street bringing the curtain down on decades of happy memories for Southport shoppers.

Some readers have expressed concern to the Visiter that the closure will leave a worrying and sizeable gap.

It is doubtful the premises will stay vacant for long, however - the only store with doors facing onto both Lord Street and Chapel Street, with sizeable floorspace, it it a prime site.

Bargain hunters were flocking through the doors on Woolies' last day, but it shouldn't be too long before they're returning to welcome in the new tenants.

DURING these tough times, many people are tightening their belts as they rein in their spending.

A lot of charities are among those finding life difficult.

So a month after the Visiter launched our Alex Appeal, urging our readers to help send 10-year-old cancer sufferer Alex Powderly on a well-deserved holiday of a lifetime, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of readers who swiftly came to his aid, and raised even more cash for some very deserving charities besides.

A huge thank you to everyone - you really have made it a merry Christmas for a very special young boy.

Readers have also been incredibly forthcoming in making Christmas wishes come true for other people in town.

The Visiter's Christmas Wish Appeal continues to provide food hampers for our town's senior citizens and others in need of cheering up at this time of year, plus giving a helping hand to some local youngsters.

Rotarians, churches, the students and staff of KGV College and all those who brought goods into our office on Tulketh Street have brought smiles to the faces of many this Christmas. Thank you all!

WHILE most of us are winding down for the Christmas break, one of the busiest times of the year is about to begin for hospital staff.

As we're tucking into our turkey and snoozing in front of the TV, staff and volunteers at Southport & Formby District General Hospital will be working round the clock to provide the best possible care and support for patients and their families.

So we're hoping you will jump at the chance to recognise their hard work by nominating in the forthcoming Pride Awards, which aim to honour the dedication of hospital employees.

The awards, launched by Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, will give patients and relatives the chance to shine a light on the people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make a difference to them.

We all know somebody who has been in hospital, and we all know how valuable the work of staff and volunteers is in making it a clean, warm and friendly place.

Southport Hospital was recently graded 'excellent' by the Health Care Commission for its exceptional standards of patient care, and the awards are the perfect opportunity to celebrate this hard-earned success.

So if you know an unsung hero at Southport Hospital then let them know what a difference they make, and nominate them for a Pride Award.

It's the least we can do.

ACCORDING to current news reports, houses are not selling as fast as they were a year ago.

And yet an estimated 4,000 families in North Sefton are desperate to move into new homes. So it is of deep concern that house building has slowed down, with thousands of construction workers laid off.

Now the Government has announced that 500 homes must be built in Sefton each year from now until 2021.

The past few months have been difficult, but hopes are now growing that the US Senate may have set the wheels turning to start the recovery in the banking world and that as a result the housing market locally may soon start to recover.

When it does, the pages in the Southport Visiter's popular Your Property supplement are testament to the fact that thousands of people desperately want to live in Southport.

To people from outside town (and famously those wanting to retire here!), our resort is a stunning place in which to live. The battle is on, however, for the new homes to be built within the Southport area. It is time for an end to Sefton's calamitous Pathfinder scheme which has placed restrictive controls preventing many developers from building much sought-after homes in Southport.

Instead, planners have tried to encourage the building of new properties in areas such as Bootle, Netherton and Litherland, creating an artificial demand which simply does not exist - except out of necessity.
This has made life desperate for would-be first-time buyers and young families in Southport who want to buy homes near their families, among friends and raise their own children in the town which they love.

Why force a 'regeneration' of South Sefton by giving families from the north of the borough little choice but to move into an area where they simply do not want to live?

Market forces - and people's own choice - should be left to rule.

Let's build these new homes - but let's make sure they're built in Southport.

SOUTHPORT has earned its reputation as a place that confers a warm welcome to our many visitors.

But the warmest of all deserves to be extended to incredible fundraiser Andy Monk, who is due to arrive outside Southport Town Hall at 1pm today (Thursday, September 18) partway through a mammoth 5,262-mile mission that was inspired by the wife he so dearly loves.

He is visiting radio station and newspaper offices across Britain to ask them to pass the message on that every day without a cure is a day too late for somebody with MS.

The love of Andy's wife, Gwen, has had MS for 15 years, although she wasn't diagnosed until 2000.

Andy said: "It was our silver wedding anniversary a few years ago and I asked Gwen that if she could have anything in the world, what would it be. She said 'I just want to be able to walk properly again'. It was an indication of how MS can affect you - it takes away the ability to do things that we all take for granted."

His target for the North is £10,000, £50,000 overall.

So if you're in town today, please pop along, give him whatever donations you can - and give a truly inspirational human being the warmest of applause to encourage him along.

If you cannot make it to the town hall, please e-mail Andy at: andy@walkamile.co.uk

HOLY water has never been so expensive.

In recent weeks, the Southport Visiter has reported how local families, local businesses and even the local authority have suffered after hefty demands for utility bills thudded onto their doormats.

Now even our churches are not immune from big firms trying to squeeze every last drop from them after Ofwat gave the green light for the imposition of a controversial new charge.

Local clergymen now fear that churches - many of whom are already under great financial pressure due to falling congregations and growing repair and maintenance bills - could face closure.

Like the proverbial tea cup stemming the rainwater flooding through the church roof, it will take a lot of bailing out just to stay afloat.

No wonder church leaders are furious that much of local people's profound generosity - displayed in filling collection plates each week, or contributing to the church fair - will now go straight into utility firms' ever-deepening pockets.

Places of worship play an incredible role in our community.

They are safe havens for the very people who need help the most. Their support is unquestioning. They give people hope, they get them back on their feet when others turn away.

They celebrate our marriages, help us mourn our deaths, mark our arrivals into this world.

They provide luncheon clubs, meeting places for parents and toddlers, Sunday school and holiday clubs for youngsters, companionship and gifts for older people at Christmas.

Their many and varied projects help shelter and feed the homeless, and even support some remarkable projects rebuilding lives of those in the Third World.

How much of their superb work will now go undone? And at what human cost?

This new charge is disgraceful, grubby and money-grabbing - parishioners may as well pour their hard-earned cash down the drain. We hope they will continue to support our local churches now more than ever.