An aviary which is threatened with closure after a council cut its support and declared it “inhumane” should stay open due its benefits for mental health, the local MP has said.
The Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport, will shut in March 2027 after Sefton Council said it would no longer supply about £60,000 in annual running costs.
Council leader Marion Atkinson later told a meeting that the facility was “no longer in the best interests of the animals” and animal welfare experts have supported the closure.
But Southport MP Patrick Hurley said closing the aviary could create “an upstream issue around mental health provision” and it might “actually be a false economy” to shut it.
Hurley told BBC Radio Merseyside the aviary and its gardens, which are home to 170 birds and small animals, were “really loved” by the community and the closure was a health and wellbeing issue.
“So many people have said the aviary has really helped them with their mental health,” he said.
“If we close it, is there going to be an upstream issue around budgets in adult social care?
“Is there going to be an upstream issue around mental health provision?
“It might actually be a false economy by closing this.”
He said it might end being a case of when “you squeeze the balloon in one area and the air comes out somewhere else”.
Hurley comments came after a public meeting, which was attended by about 200 people.