Sefton Council have called in an almost 50 tonne excavator to help deconstruct the former Southport Theatre and Convention Centre.
 
The impressive heavy-duty machinery, operated by specialist demolition contractors DSM, rolled into the Promenade site on Thursday morning (September 19th) as part of the preparation work ahead of building the new Marine Lake Events Centre.
 
Part of the former theatre has already been safely decommissioned and the addition of this latest machinery will contribute to the existing work that has been undertaken in recent weeks.
 
Residents and local businesses have been kept regularly updated on the works and Sefton Council has, and will continue to hold face-to-face sessions for people nearby to ask questions and raise any concerns.
 
Prior to the disassembly, a number of historical heritage items were removed from the former theatre and are now being held in safe storage and will be incorporated into the future MLEC site for public viewing.

Demolition team rescues historic theatre memorabilia.
 
Sefton Council and its partners remain fully committed to an impressive social value project which gives back to the community in a number of ways and the team will be welcoming engineering and construction students from both Southport College and Hugh Baird College to the site in the coming weeks.
 
Councillor Paulette Lappin, Sefton Council's Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Economy and Skills, said: "It's great to see lots of work happening on site and the project is being managed in a very considerate way as to reduce a much disruption as possible to our neighbouring residents and businesses.
 
"With huge economic and tourism projects like the Marine Lake Events Centre, there are lots of things which need to happen behind the scenes that most will never be aware of so for people to be able to see physical demolition work taking place is great.
 
 "Our social value work is a real credit to the kindness and generosity of our project partners and contractors and I would like to thank them again for their incredible kindness in supporting the community in and around Southport.”
 

You can find out more about the MLEC scheme here​.