The village on the border of Merseyside has been tainted by the horrific killer who lived there
Church Road, Banks(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
“A lot of people in the village feel it’s been tainted by what’s happened, understandably, but we want to show the other side of it.”
This is how Annie Ives describes Banks – a small, rural village most people outside of the north west will have never heard of, that is up until last year. Following the horrific attack at a children’s Taylor Swift-themed workshop in Southport which left three schoolgirls dead and a further eight injured, it quickly transpired that the attacker, Axel Rudakubana, lived on a small close in the centre of the village.
Although rarely seen with many not recognising him or his family despite them living on the tight cul-de-sac for seven years, the village was thrown into the spotlight as the world’s media descended on the leafy village which sits on the border of Lancashire and Merseyside, just a couple of miles outside of Southport.
Neighbours from Old School Close soon sold up and left, with the ECHO revealing how internet ghouls had been visiting the street daily to take photos of the attackers home and threatening neighbours. But, following the sentencing of the teenager in January this year, most had expected the dust to settle, allowing the community to move on.
Annie Ives, trustee of The Hub, the village’s community centre run by volunteers and nestled away down a country lane close to the Tarelton Bypass, told the ECHO Banks still has crime-obsessed visitors making daytrips to the area to see where the attacker and his family lived an unremarkable life.
But she, and her team of dedicated volunteers, are set on moving forward, leaving behind any feeling that the village has been tainted by the horrific and unimaginable acts of one individual.
Annie Ives, trustee of The Hub in Banks(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
She said: “A lot of people in the village feel it’s been tainted by what’s happened, understandably, but we want to show the other side of it. The great community spirit, how lovely it is to live here, and the community feeling that we have.
“The Hub is the community and leisure centre which should have shut down in 2019 because the accounts were going to shut but we felt it was such a fantastic amenity that it needed to be saved. This is when the volunteers and trustees came together and it has just gone from strength to strength.
“We were successful in getting a lottery grant and we’ve just developed a community café because there is nowhere in the town you can just get a coffee. It’s a meeting place for the village, it’s been completely refurbished all by our volunteers in four weeks flat which is amazing.”
Annie, 64, spoke out as the Southport Inquiry continues at Liverpool Town Hall, with witnesses being called daily in hope of establishing how Rudakubana was able to carry out the heart-wrenching attack.
Church Road, Banks(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Having been a trustee at The Hub since 2021, she explained how the village remains close-knit in the face of adversity. She said: “It’s a close-knit village and there’s a good community feel.
“We’ve always got something on at Christmas and the volunteers who are working in the centre are motivated to make sure this place doesn’t close down.
“We’re moving on from the attack, but I know the headteacher at one of the local schools and the kids are unsettled each time there is something on the TV about it.
“I continue to speak with him about how the kids are feeling and it helped us get the lottery grant to help with mental health and wellbeing activities for the children.”
Following the sentencing of the teen killer, the ECHO revealed how his next door neighbour, Caroline, had moved out, relocating to a different area in Lancashire.
Caroline was a neighbour of Axel Rudakubana(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Caroline told the ECHO in the weeks that followed how neighbours had heard people going past the cordon shouting threats, resulting in fire safety checks being done on houses in case the murderer’s home was targeted.
She added: “The fact that I’ve moved out the area means I feel so much more relieved and settled because even though the events of the day don’t affect me, they kind of did because of what’s gone on next door.
“We were constantly questioned by police, constantly having police there, constantly having people coming down making threats. My son didn’t want to live here so he lived with his grandma for months.
“I had to deal with the trauma of having a gun pointed in my face when police first came to the close, that’s upsetting, and then finding out there were chemicals next door, I don’t want to have that anymore. They’re not the memories I want to remember, I don’t want that.”
Old School Close, Banks(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
She said: “It’s not Old School Close anymore, it’s the forgotten close. No crime was committed there but our lives were turned upside down.”
The ECHO understands other neighbours have since relocated from the close off the back of the attack last year. While people have left, Annie is determined to ensure those who want a quiet, leafy life, are able to have one.
She said: “People are moving here wanting a quiet village lifestyle for their children. There are two fantastic primary schools here. Banks offers the sort of childhood that you had years ago, we have rounders on the playing field in the summer every week, and all sorts of people come out. I don’t know many places that do that type of thing.
“People are moving into this village because they wan this rural lifestyle, but yet we’re still so close to Southport. There is a very different feel here than to Southport.”