{"id":857671,"date":"2026-08-14T09:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/857671\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T09:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:58:16","slug":"keep-southport-aviary-open-to-help-mental-health-mp-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/857671\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Southport aviary open to help mental health, MP says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An aviary which is threatened with closure after a council cut its support and declared it &#8220;inhumane&#8221; should stay open due its benefits for mental health, the local MP has said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport, will shut in March 2027 after Sefton Council said it would no longer supply about \u00a360,000 in annual running costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Council leader Marion Atkinson later told a meeting that the facility was &#8220;no longer in the best interests of the animals&#8221; and animal welfare experts have supported the closure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Southport MP Patrick Hurley said closing the aviary could create &#8220;an upstream issue around mental health provision&#8221; and it might &#8220;actually be a false economy&#8221; to shut it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hurley told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/live\/bbc_radio_merseyside\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC Radio Merseyside<\/a> the aviary and its gardens, which are home to 170 birds and small animals, were &#8220;really loved&#8221; by the community and the closure was a health and wellbeing issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So many people have said the aviary has really helped them with their mental health,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If we close it, is there going to be an upstream issue around budgets in adult social care?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Is there going to be an upstream issue around mental health provision? <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It might actually be a false economy by closing this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said it might end being a case of when &#8220;you squeeze the balloon in one area and the air comes out somewhere else&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hurley comments came after a public meeting, which was attended by about 200 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An aviary which is threatened with closure after a council cut its support and declared it &#8220;inhumane&#8221; should&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":["post-857671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}