On the streets of St Helens, people are calling for change – for the ruling Labour group, the prospect is horrifying
St Helens Town Centre(Image: )
It is a bitingly cold Thursday afternoon in St Helens and 72-year-old Janet Dwyer is heading into ASDA to do her shopping, but not before she shares her views on the state of the place – in far from uncertain terms.
“St Helens town centre wants a bomb putting under it. The place stinks. There is nowhere to shop, you have to go out of town.” Her phrasing may be direct, but that’s how things are done around here.
Around the corner 77-year-old Billy Bridges is similarly unequivocal about his home town. “It’s f****** s*** now. It used to be brilliant, but everything is shutting down. It’s really sad.”
Looking around the town centre and you can see there is a fair point being made. The would-be high streets are littered with closed-down shops. Major stores have packed up and moved out to nearby retail parks. Many of those with doors remaining open are either vape shops or takeaways.
These struggles are not unique to St Helens of course. Post-industrial towns up and down the country are facing similar challenges as they struggle to compete with the big cities nearby, out-of-town retail spaces and the internet.
A former coal mining powerhouse, at one point around the turn of the 20th Century, St Helens’ collieries were producing over a million tonnes of coal each year.
Glassmaking was another industry to put St Helens on the map. But while the sector remains a key part of the town’s fabric today – with the historic firm Pilkington still overlooking the town centre – it is an industry that has seen closures, cutbacks and significant job losses in recent times.
This all adds to the feeling of malaise on the streets of the town centre, where some locals say they feel they are being left behind.
Now to be fair, there is, finally, action being taken to try and revive the fortunes of the town centre.
St Helens Town Centre is undergoing a huge regeneration project(Image: )
To look at a large chunk of the centre today, you would think that Janet Dwyer had got her wish and that an explosive device had indeed been set off, but in fact, the huge cavern where the former Hardshaw shopping centre once stood is a sign of what local leaders promise will be a new beginning.
The 40-year-old shopping centre and nearby buildings have now been razed to the ground and work is underway on the construction of a new modern market hall, a 120-bed Hampton by Hilton hotel, apartments, townhouses and retail spaces, all due to be completed by the end of the decade.
When you throw in the small matter of a £35m new transport interchange, you can’t argue that change is not coming. But will it be enough to change the mood?
Danny Bracken operates a meat van that pitches up directly next to the huge town centre building site each week.
“They had to do something,” he says, glancing over at the hoardings surrounding the demolition site. “When I first came here there were big shops like Marks and Spencer’s and Argos and gradually they have all headed towards the retail parks.
“It was in dire need of something, I don’t know if this is the right thing but it can’t be any worse. My Mrs is from St Helens, she says she doesn’t know anyone who comes into town anymore because there is nothing here. So to see some action is a step.”
The borough’s Labour council is hoping that the town centre regeneration project that is now underway will be enough to convince voters to keep them in power when all out council elections are held in May – but it’s fair to say the confidence of this happening is low right now.
This is a traditional Labour ‘red wall town’, the council has been under majority Labour control since it was formed in 1974 – bar a six-year-period of no overall control between 2004 and 2010. The two parliamentary constituencies have remained Labour seats since they were created in the 1980s.
Danny Bracken sells meat in St Helens Town Centre(Image: )
But despite this long record of success, the feeling in Labour circles right now is bleak, with the prospect of significant local electoral success for Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform party having already moved on from being an existential fear to a near-certainty.
“It is looking really, really bad,” says a St Helens Labour insider. “I think it is almost a certainty that Labour will not be in control of the council after May, I think it is likely that Reform will be the largest party, they might even win a majority.”
“The mood is more resigned than anything,” adds the insider. “People in the other boroughs and in the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority are preparing for a Reform-led council and one that has a seat in the Labour mayor’s cabinet. It’s a foretaste of what could happen in other areas.”
Evidence for this sense of impending doom being felt amongst the local Labour Party was provided back in October, when regional director in the north west Anthony Lavelle issued a grim warning to St Helens party members.
His missive stated: “The growing threat of Reform poses a serious challenge to the values we stand for. This is the threat we are now facing in St Helens.”
Worryingly, he added: “I won’t put this lightly, we are fighting a losing battle with Reform here” before rather robustly telling local members that “if you aren’t willing to help, you are helping them win.”
The rallying cry didn’t land as planned, says the local Labour source. “If you want to motivate people don’t tell them off,” they add.
Anthony Rochester believes it is time to give Nigel Farage and Reform a go(Image: )
What hasn’t helped the increasingly gloomy mood music for the ruling group is the fact that numerous high profile councillors have already announced they will be standing down in May. While they have all given individual reasons for jumping ship, there will be many who think they can see the writing on the wall.
The list of those departing includes senior councillor and current deputy police commissioner Jeanie Bell as well as Seve Gomez-Aspiron, the colourful character who currently holds the position as the town’s mayor.
A former deputy leader and cabinet member, known for his outspoken behaviour, Cllr Gomez-Aspiron said he is quitting because of time commitments but acknowledged the threat of Reform in his announcement. “Populism is dangerous,” he warned, “you deserve better, so don’t be drawn in by it.”
But on the streets of St Helens, that warning is falling on deaf ears in some cases.
“I’m not happy with what Labour are doing and I think maybe we should go for Farage to give it a go, for something different,” suggests 61-year-old Anthony Rochester.
“Labour has held St Helens for a long time. The town centre needs upgrading. I’ve been here 35 years and it’s been the same.”
He adds: “I think Farage is a strong leader, he doesn’t take s***. I have voted Labour before but no one has been able to move them out of St Helens in a long time.”
What is perhaps most worrying for the current Labour leadership – both here and in Westminster – is that even those who find Farage’s right-wing populism unpalatable are more exercised by their dislike of Keir Starmer’s party.
Billy Bridges is a former Labour voter who says he won’t be voting for the party again(Image: )
Back at his meat van, Danny Bracken explains: “I could see St Helens going to Reform without a doubt. People want change and he knows what to say and when to say it.”
For him personally, the Reform leader is “a bit too extreme” and he finds it hard to trust him after Brexit, although he is more direct in his criticism of Keir Starmer. “He is just weak isn’t he?” says Danny.
Billy Bridges, 77, adds: “I have always voted Labour but I don’t think they will get back in. This was a Labour town but they are not looking after us.”
Not everyone agrees however. Back at the ASDA on the outskirts of the town centre and 84-year-old Jim Raw is scathing about Farage and co and supportive of what Labour are doing in his home town.
“I dislike everything about him (Farage),” explains Jim. “I have always voted Labour and I always will do. The town centre is under regeneration at the moment so I can’t complain.”
The local Labour Party will be desperately hoping to find more people like Jim in the period between now and May’s elections – in which ever council seat will be up for grabs – but in their own words, it is starting to feel like a losing battle.