‘Doesn’t go to fundamentals’: autumn statement misses mark in Southport

The closure of Southport’s pier had affected the town’s hospitality industry, said one cafe owner. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Southport pier has stretched into the Irish sea since the Victorian era, surviving fires, Nazi warplanes and more than 160 years of daytrippers treading its sandy boards.

Today it stands as a monument of decline. The Grade II-listed structure, the second-longest pier in Britain, has been closed for almost a year after safety surveys found it “rotting from within”.