Eastbank Street is one of the main gateways into Southport town centre and now, thanks to the BID, our visitors will be welcomed by a series of vibrant banners promoting all the town has to offer. The banners contain messages relating to all the major business sectors represented by the BID – shopping and retail, hospitality, hotels and accommodation, attractions and leisure and events and form a corridor of colour as people drive into town.

Historically Southport has been associated with a wealth of flowers and planting schemes. For the past decade, the formerly?ubiquitous hanging baskets, once a common feature, have been sadly missing from the public realm street furniture of Lord Street and Eastbank Street.

To add to Southport’s vibrancy, alongside the new banners, they are now?back in all their glory; we have put up and are caring for over 350 baskets on lamp columns to add to the many purchased and maintained by individual businesses to?make Southport bloom again.?These were paid for by the business community through the BID with help from The Flower Show and Southport In Bloom Volunteers who also manage the beautiful planters and urns along Lord Street. As with everything we do we plan to develop and increase the scheme over the 5 year lifetime of the BID. We?re proud to bring the floral colour back to our town and hope our visitors and residents enjoy the displays.

Both the banners and baskets add to Southport town centre as an attractive and welcoming centre to encourage longer stays, more repeat visits which in turn?give our businesses the opportunity to attract more customers. The banner designs are set tie in with wider promotional campaigns, including window vinyls on empty units and other publications giving consistent, positive messages and reinforcing the image of Southport as an attractive, colourful and welcoming town with lots to offer.