Plans to transform Ainsdale Beach have already begun with the opening of a new food and drink stand at the end of Shore Lane.
B-Eat on the Street, whose Morecambe-based outlet has already won awards for its fish and chips, opened two shipping containers opposite Toad Hall over the weekend as part of plans to improve facilities at Ainsdale.
Owner Alex Richardson said: “It’s been great. We’ve had the weather for it so we’re over the moon.”
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The containers will be there until the end of the summer as part of a trial following Crosby Bus Yard’s successful run further along the coast, but Ms Richardson said she would be happy to stay as long as visitors kept coming to the beach.
At the same time, Sefton Council is looking at other ways to encourage people to use Ainsdale Beach, with plans to build a new off-beach car park behind Pontins and install new temporary toilets in the area.
Cllr Ian Moncur, the cabinet member responsible for Sefton’s beaches, said: “Even though there’s a huge amount of parking available on the beach, that can get really full but also, being a beach, there are certain times when the tide’s in and the parking facilities aren’t available.”
But despite providing more parking spaces, the council is also attempting to encourage people to use public transport to get to the beach - although it has less control over those services.
Cllr Moncur said: “In terms of Merseyrail, the station is straight up the road, it’s about a 10 minute walk and in pre-Covid times that line was a 15-minute service so it’s very frequent.
“In terms of the buses, it’s more challenging to influence those currently in terms of the control over bus operators but anything we can do to try and encourage them to put on services we will look at.”
Further in the future, the council is looking at bringing two derelict buildings by the entrance to the beach back into use.
One of these, The Sands pub, closed in 2017 while the other, Toad Hall, used to host a nightclub that attracted star footballers but has been closed for decades and ravaged by vandalism and a fire in 2014.
The council’s current plans are to do up the outside of Toad Hall this year, and eventually secure new uses for both buildings.
However, there are no firm plans for what either building could become.
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