It Was Never About the Birds
Sefton Council sold a building inside the Botanic Gardens and kept the money. Then it closed the aviary. Then it voted twice against using the proceeds for the park. The transformation plan the closure enables was conceived four years earlier at a governance board where the Chair held undeclared equity worth tens of millions and a board member pitched his own company for a contract from the same floor.
In plain terms
The Botanic Gardens aviary in Churchtown, Southport, opened in 1939. It housed 170 birds, was free to visit, and cost the council approximately£80,750 a year to run. Staff were told it was closing on 1 July 2026. The council had voted to close it five months earlier, in the February 2026 budget. Nobody outside the council knew.
Before the closure was announced, the council sold a residential lodge inside the park boundary. The proceeds went into Sefton Council's general capital fund. When the Liberal Democrats proposed that those proceeds be used to save the aviary and fund a Heritage Lottery bid that would have turned every pound into nine, Labour voted it down.Twice.
The aviary sits on cleared land that the council's own transformation plan identifies as the location for new visitor attractions. That plan was first proposed in September 2020 at a meeting of the Southport Town Deal Board. At the same board, members have collectively held undeclared interests including equity worth tens of millions of pounds in Southport's largest private employer, a property company on Hoghton Street, and a digital consultancy contract awarded to a board member's own company through a process that bypassed open competition.
The aviary is not the story. The aviary is the space the story needed.
The decision and the five months
The aviary closure appeared in Sefton Council's revenue and capital budget plan for 2026/27, approved at the Full Council meeting on 26 February 2026. It was listed as a single line item under Green Sefton operational savings: close the aviary, save £60,000 a year.
Staff were informed on 1 July 2026: five monthsafter the elected council voted to include the closure in the budget. No public consultation was held before the vote. No equality impact assessment was conducted before the vote. The council's own FOI response confirmed both.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Mar 2025 | Green Sefton annual report lists aviary under "amending what we manage and how" — internal review already underway |
| Dec 2025 | Council votes to declare No. 2 Lodge, Botanic Gardens, surplus to requirements and transfers disposal to Cabinet Member for Regeneration |
| 26 Feb 2026 | Full Council votes to close the aviary as part of the annual budget. No standalone public discussion. No equality screening. |
| 1 Jul 2026 | Aviary staff informed. First public knowledge of the decision — five months after the vote. |
| 10 Jul 2026 | Public meeting held. Council cites animal welfare. Marion Atkinson states the closure was not about money. |
| 13 Aug 2026 | Council confirms: PETA and welfare experts were approached by the council. The BBC reports they were contacted after the decision had already been made. |
| 17 Sep 2026 | Full Council votes 35-27 to defeat a motion to use lodge proceeds for the Heritage Lottery bid and the aviary. |
| Mar 2027 | Planned closure. Structures to be demolished. |
The stated cost versus the actual cost. The council's budget document stated the saving as £60,000 a year. The FOI response disclosed the actual operating costs: £71,607 in 2025/26 and an estimated £80,750 in 2026/27. Staff salaries account for most of that, having nearly doubled since 2023/24 as the team expanded. The council then voted to close the facility and save a figure it later could not reconcile with its own financial records.
The welfare rationale arrived after the decision. The BBC confirmed that PETA was contacted by the council approximately two weeks before the BBC story brokein July 2026. The closure had been decided in February. The expert support came afterwards. Marion Atkinson subsequently stated the closure was "not about money" and was instead about animal welfare. The sequence of events does not support that framing.
The lodge inside the park
In December 2025, the same administration that would close the aviary two months later approved the disposal of six vacant council properties across Southport. One of them was inside the Botanic Gardens.
Property disposed
No. 2 Lodge, Botanic Gardens, Botanic Road, Southport, PR9 7NB
| Disposal approved | December 2025 |
| Decision authority | Cabinet Member for Regeneration (Lappin) |
| Asset reference | Asset 906 |
| Sale method | Auction |
| Proceeds to | General capital receipts |
| Amount ringfenced for park | £0 |
The lodge is located within the Botanic Gardens site. It is a vacant residential property. The council stated it had been vacant for many years and was in poor repair. Its disposal was handled under Paulette Lappin's delegated authority as Cabinet Member for Regeneration. No land valuation or capital receipt figure has been published.
The HLF leverage that was refused. The Botanic Gardens Community Association is pursuing a Heritage Lottery Fund bid for up to £5 million in park improvements. The HLF match funding model means every £1 of public contribution attracts £9 from the Heritage Fund. A lodge sale proceeds of even £100,000 would therefore have unlocked up to £900,000 in additional HLF investment. The council chose not to direct the proceeds this way. That choice was then put to a vote, twice.
Two votes
On 16 July 2026, Liberal Democrat councillor Daniel Lewis tabled a motion at Full Council. It asked for the proceeds from the sale of No. 2 Lodge to be directed to two purposes: the Heritage Lottery bid and the continued operation of the aviary. The motion was titled "Support for the Botanic Gardens Volunteers and Heritage Lottery Bid."
Motion text (verbatim from council minutes)
"Council resolves: 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."
Moved by Councillor Lewis. Seconded by Councillor Lauren Keith. Full Council, July 2026.
The motion did not pass in July. It was brought back to the 17 September 2026 Full Council meeting. The result was recorded under the council's Rule 96 provisions, meaning votes were taken individually.
| Date | For | Against | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 July 2026 | Did not proceed | Motion fell | |
| 17 September 2026 | 27 | 35 | Defeated |
All Labour members present voted against. Lib Dems, Reform, Independents and Greens voted for. Every procedural option available to the community was used and exhausted. The March 2027 closure will proceed.
The plan behind the closure
The Botanic Gardens aviary does not sit on a corner of the park. It sits approximately 30 metres north-east of the main entrance, on Botanic Road, in the highest-footfall section of the site. The Parks and Gardens register describes it as occupying prime position near the principal buildings. The council's own FAQ notes that the site"cannot be expanded for any price due to its location."
The council has been pursuing a £7.3 million transformation of the Botanic Gardens since 2020. A Heritage Lottery Fund pre-development grant of £79,625 was awarded in June 2022 to fund the consultation process. A seven-month public consultation ran in 2022/23, gathering over 1,100 responses. The transformation plan is built around "new attractions" for the park. The site of the aviary is the available land for those attractions.
Transformation timeline
Southport Town Deal Board proposes "Green Ribbon" covering Botanic Gardens, Hesketh Park, Southport Golf Course, and Ainsdale beach gateway as a potential Town Deal project.
Green Sefton annual report lists aviary under "amending what we manage and how." Task Group established, chaired by the Cabinet Member. HLF pre-development grant secured: £79,625.
Public consultation runs. 1,100+ responses. Vision adopted for long-term improvement scheme. Budget target for transformation: £7.3 million.
Green Sefton target: Stage 1 HLF bid placed with Heritage Fund. Same month: No. 2 Lodge approved for disposal.
Aviary closure voted in February budget. Site to be cleared and demolished.
Aviary demolished. Council states site will become a "nature space for native wildlife." Detailed new attractions plan not yet published.
Why the HLF bid needs the site cleared. Heritage Lottery Fund Stage 1 bids require a credible delivery plan with cleared land for the proposed new features. An 87-year-old aviary requiring a six-figure infrastructure upgrade, on the prime entrance footprint of the park, is incompatible with the "new attractions" case for a £5 million grant. The aviary was not closed because the animals were suffering. The animals were fine. The site was needed.
Meanwhile, 328 homes are under active construction on Bankfield Lane, the road that runs alongside the park entrance, by Wain Homes North West Ltd. A further 157 homes are being built on the former Philips Factory site on Rufford Road. Combined: 485 new homes in Churchtown, completing between now and 2030. The park is the principal outdoor amenity for all of them. The transformation improves the park those residents will use.
There is a water connection between the park and the development site that is a matter of public record. The Botanic Gardens lake is fed by the Pool, a historic watercourse that flows from Blowick through the adjacent Meols Hall estate. The overflow from the lake drains back under Bankfield Lane into the Hesketh Estates watercourses on the other side. A formal licence exists between Sefton Council, the Botanic Gardens Community Association, and Hesketh Estates governing access to that culvert, documented on the BGCA's own website after it was unblocked in 2012 following an eight-year blockage that flooded the lake.
The owner of Meols Hall, Catherine Hesketh, is a co-applicant on the Bankfield Lane Phase 2 reserved matters application (DC/2020/02331), the same development currently under construction adjacent to the park. The Bankfield Lane planning approval is conditional on sustainable drainage using "existing ordinary watercourses within the site." Those watercourses are in the same catchment as the Park Pool and the culvert under Bankfield Lane. Sefton Council approved the development and simultaneously holds the licence governing the watercourse connection to the park.
The board where the plan was born
The Green Ribbon concept that originated the Botanic Gardens transformation was proposed at the Southport Town Deal Board meeting on 15 September 2020. The board controls the allocation of £37.5 million of government regeneration funding. Its meetings are not open to the public.
SIBA has been investigating the governance of this board as part of its Southport BID investigation. The findings below are drawn entirely from Companies House records, Town Deal Board minutes, and published council documents. No allegation of personal misconduct is made. These are structural observations about undeclared interests.
Rob Fletcher — Chair
Rob Fletcher founded Fletchers Solicitors in 1987 and chaired the firm for 34 years. He was appointed Town Deal Board Chair in February 2020. On 20 October 2021 he resigned as director of Fletchers Solicitors and ceased as person with significant control on the same day, when the firm was acquired by Sun European Partners (an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a US private equity firm with $13 billion in capital commitments).
Legal Futures reported at the time that Fletcher and his nephew Edward Fletcher "have exited the business, although they have left some money in it for the next five years." That five-year lock-up expires in October 2026, next month.
In February 2026, Sun Capital completed a continuation vehicle transaction for Fletchers, valued at £240 million. The firm was acquired for approximately £37 million in 2021. Rob Fletcher and Edward Fletcher are confirmed as joint persons with significant control of Ultimate Costs Limited, a legal costs company connected to the Fletchers group, alongside Alex Hatchman (see below).
Rob Fletcher and Edward Fletcher are also confirmed as joint active directors of Arnold Barron Properties Limited, a Southport property letting company (SIC 68209) registered at 30 Fleetwood Road, Southport. The Town Deal Board Code of Conduct defines a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest to include "any beneficial interest in land which is within the area of the relevant authority." Arnold Barron Properties has never been declared at any board meeting.
| Declared at any board meeting | No |
| Equity rollover status | Undisclosed. Five-year lock-up expires October 2026. |
| Arnold Barron Properties (Southport) | Property letting company, co-directed with nephew Edward Fletcher. Never declared. |
| Code of Conduct DPI test | Securities (equity rollover) and Land (Arnold Barron) — both threshold met |
| Declared interest at board (full period) | Landlord to MP's office only |
| Reminded to update declarations | Sep 14, 2026. No update made. |
Dan Taylor — Board member
Dan Taylor has been at Fletchers Group for 27 years. He has served as finance director, technology director, and twice as operations director. Since the Sun European acquisition he has been Director of Integration, a key role in the firm's acquisition programme. He is also Chair of Southport BID, a role he has held since January 2023.
Southport BID has a formal Service Level Agreement with Sefton Council and has received approximately £1.09 million in council payments across 58 documented transactions. Dan Taylor as BID Chair heads a body with a formal contract with the relevant authority (the Town Deal's accountable body). Under the Town Deal Code of Conduct, this is a registrable personal interest and potentially a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest.
His employment at Fletchers Group (Southport's largest private sector employer, with 400+ Southport-based staff) is itself a registrable DPI under the Employment category. No declaration has been recorded at any Town Deal Board meeting in the corpus reviewed.
Alex Hatchman — Board member 2020-2022
Alex Hatchman was Chief Strategy and Operating Officer at Fletchers Solicitors during her tenure on the Town Deal Board (2020-2022). She was simultaneously a Non-Executive Director of Southport BID (2018-2022). She is confirmed as an active co-director of Ultimate Costs Limited alongside Rob Fletcher and Edward Fletcher.
Fletchers Solicitors therefore had continuous representation on the Town Deal Board from its founding in 2020 to the present day through three successive executives: Hatchman (2020-2022), then Taylor (2022-present), with Rob Fletcher as Chair throughout. None of the three have declared their connection to each other or to the same employer at any reviewed meeting.
James Brayshaw — Board member
James Brayshaw is CEO of AdaptiveComms Group Limited. He declared an interest in "Town Centre WiFi/Digital economy" at the first Town Deal Board meeting in February 2020 and "recused himself from any vote" on digital matters at the March 2020 meeting.
At that same March 2020 meeting, Brayshaw addressed the board on the digital workstream brief. The minutes record directly:
"James Brayshaw surmised that the proposal provided to the Board is a good brief and overview of what needs to happen, however believes that this work could and should be carried out by a local firm, for which his company would be well placed and uniquely qualified to do so."
The minutes then record: "Discussion on the brief concluded that AdaptiveComms should provide a tender response for this work and approval will be delegated to the Board outside of the board meeting." By April 2020: "AdaptiveComms have been appointed as consultants to the digital workstream following the submission and Board approval of their proposal."
The work was not put to open competition. It was directed at Brayshaw's company after he made the case for his own company from the board floor. Approval was taken off-meeting with no public vote record. A recusal from voting does not prevent a board member from advocating for their own commercial interests in the same session.
Brayshaw also holds Duck Egg Investments Limited (SIC 68209, property letting) registered at 11b Hoghton Street, Southport, one block from Lord Street, in the BID levy area. This has not been declared at any Town Deal Board meeting reviewed.
The September 14, 2026 meeting. Eight days ago the Town Deal Board met. The agenda included a specific item: "Governance and Membership Matters — Continuation of Chair." The board was formally deciding whether Rob Fletcher continues as Chair. His equity lock-up expires next month.
At the same meeting, Mark Catherall (Sefton Council officer) explicitly reminded all board members to update their declarations of interest. The minutes record: "No new declarations of interest to note." This was not the first reminder. In October 2024, the board was formally told that MHCLG had reviewed Town Deal Boards nationally and found 93% were non-compliant with one or more governance requirements. All boards were directed to review declarations and publish updated registers. At every subsequent meeting in the corpus, the Southport board recorded no new declarations.
While the Churchtown aviary closes, a new botanical garden opens on Lord Street
On 21 September 2026, the day before this report was published, Sefton Council launched the second round of public consultation on the regeneration of the Town Hall Gardens on Lord Street in Southport town centre.
The proposed design for the £10 million project includes four character areas. One of them is named a Botanical Garden.
| Design element | Description |
|---|---|
| Performance Plaza | Flexible outdoor performance and events space |
| Mega Ripples | Water play space linked to the town's spa history |
| Celebration Dunes | Landscape referencing the coastal dune system |
| Botanical Garden | New planting, biodiversity, and green space. Marion Atkinson: "We are ensuring there are more trees and planting opportunities than ever before with the new Botanical Garden." |
Total project value
£10 million
Central government
£5 million (MHCLG)
Liverpool City Region CA
£2.5 million
Sefton Council
£2.5 million
Design firm
Ridge and Partners LLP
Consultation closes
5 October 2026
This report records the sequence without making a causal claim between the two projects.
The sequence is, however, documentable. The Churchtown Botanic Gardens aviary closes in March 2027. The Lord Street Botanical Garden proceeds through consultation now. The same administration is simultaneously removing a botanical attraction from a community park in the north of the town and creating a new one in the commercial centre to the south. Whether these are related policy choices is a question the council has not been asked to answer.
Ridge and Partners LLP, the design firm for the Town Hall Gardens, was acquired by CVC Capital Partners on 17 September 2026, the same day Full Council voted 35-27 to confirm the aviary closure. The two events are unconnected. It is noted for completeness.
Primary sources
Botanic Gardens Community Association: Lake flooding issue resolved
Confirms the overflow culvert runs under Bankfield Lane into Meols Hall estate watercourses, and that a formal licence was signed between Sefton Council, BGCA and Hesketh Estates for ongoing access.
View pageDC/2020/02331 — Land off Bankfield Lane (Phase 2 reserved matters)
Planning application in which Catherine Hesketh, owner of Meols Hall, is confirmed as a co-applicant alongside Wain Homes for the 156-home Phase 2 development. Drainage conditions require use of existing watercourses on site.
View documentSouthport Town Deal Board minutes — September 14, 2026
Confirms the "Continuation of Chair" agenda item and the explicit reminder to update declarations of interest. Confirms no new declarations were made.
View board pageSefton Council aviary FAQ
Sefton Council's own published answers on the aviary closure, including cost figures, welfare rationale, and future site use. Confirms no EIA was conducted.
View pageBBC: Botanic Gardens should not be sacrificed
Confirms PETA was contacted approximately a fortnight before the BBC article, after the closure decision had been made.
View articleNotice of Motion — Support for Botanic Gardens Volunteers
Full text of the Lib Dem motion proposing lodge proceeds be directed to the Heritage Lottery bid and the aviary. Tabled July 2026.
View documentNational Lottery Heritage Fund: Botanic Gardens, Churchtown
Confirms HLF pre-development grant of £79,625 awarded to Green Sefton on 21 June 2022.
View projectGreen Sefton Annual Report 2024
Confirms the aviary listed under "amending what we manage and how" in the March 2025 scrutiny report. Confirms HLF bid target for December 2025.
View documentSouthport Town Deal Board minutes — September 15, 2020
Confirms the Green Ribbon concept (Botanic Gardens, Hesketh Park, etc.) was proposed at the first substantive Town Deal Board meeting.
View minutesSouthport Town Deal Board minutes — March 24, 2020
Confirms James Brayshaw declared recusal from voting on digital, then addressed the board on behalf of AdaptiveComms as a suitable firm. Confirms off-meeting approval process.
View minutesSefton Council Meet the Board
Confirms board membership, biographies, and Dan Taylor's role as Director of Integration at Fletchers Group and Chair of Southport BID.
View pageFletchers £240m valuation — Liverpool Business News
Confirms the continuation vehicle transaction in February 2026, the £240m valuation, and the approximate £37m original acquisition price.
View articleThe Sandgrounder: The aviary is closing
SIBA's own earlier coverage documenting the budget discrepancy, FOI findings, and missing equality assessment.
View reportSefton Full Council minutes — September 17, 2026
Confirms the 35-27 vote defeating the motion to use lodge proceeds for the Botanic Gardens.
View minutesPlace North West: Sefton unveils Town Hall Gardens vision
Confirms the £10m Town Hall Gardens project including the Botanical Garden element, announced 21 September 2026.
View articleAll Companies House data confirmed live on 22 September 2026. Town Deal Board corpus data confirmed via Institrace (see below).
How we found it: Institrace
Several findings in this report were confirmed or discovered through Institrace, a public records intelligence platform built by Churchtown Media. Institrace holds over 1.1 million published documents from 1,322 UK public bodies, covering council meeting minutes, planning papers, NHS board papers, committee reports, spend records and contracts, alongside Companies House data for 26,000+ tracked individuals and a cross-referenced network of director overlaps, land interests and supplier payments. The Sefton Council corpus alone runs to over 20,000 documents.
The AdaptiveComms appointment (March/April 2020) was confirmed by searching the Sefton corpus for co-occurrence of "AdaptiveComms" and "Town Deal," surfacing the verbatim minute that records Brayshaw's pitch from the board floor and the off-meeting approval.
The Green Ribbon origin (September 2020) was confirmed by searching for "Green Ribbon" in the corpus, which returned six documents across five years tracing the concept from its first appearance at the founding board meeting to its delivery in current Green Sefton reports.
The declarations pattern was confirmed by pulling every Town Deal Board minute containing the word "declaration" and reading the verbatim record across 2020 to 2026. The September 14, 2026 reminder from Catherall to update declarations, followed immediately by no updates, is in the most recent document in the corpus.
The identification of 97 Brayshaw mentions and 45 Hatchman mentions across the Sefton corpus allowed the full scope of their public governance activity to be mapped. Without the corpus, finding these connections would have required manually reading hundreds of PDFs.
Related reports
Right of reply
Right of reply has been offered to Marion Atkinson (Leader, Sefton Council), Rob Fletcher (Chair, Southport Town Deal Board), James Brayshaw (member, Southport Town Deal Board), and Dan Taylor (member, Southport Town Deal Board). If you represent any party named in this report and wish to respond, contact [email protected]. Responses are published in full without editing. No factual inaccuracy has been identified in this report. Any party who believes a factual error exists is invited to identify it specifically.
Author
Damian Roche
Founder, SIBA Digital
Ex-British Army, Queen's Guards. 20 years in web development and SEO. Built the SIBA investigation methodology from public documents alone. Cross-referencing Companies House filings, director networks, procurement chains, and FOI strategy. The same discipline is applied to every audit.