120
The indicative capacity for this site in the adopted Local Plan (2017, allocation MN2.8), and the same figure the Council uses in its July 2026 Cabinet report.
221
Homes discussed in a 2022 pre-application enquiry, nearly double the Local Plan figure.
6
Ecology reports the Council released to residents in July 2026, after refusing the request outright and losing an internal review.
Where things stand
What's happening now
Under its "Sefton 2030" initiative, Sefton Council is working with a housing partner, The Sovini Group, to bring forward new housing on council-owned land. On 23 July 2026 Cabinet added three more sites to that partnership:
- the former Ainsdale Hope C of E High School site, the field behind Sandringham Road and Knowle Avenue, estimated at 120 homes;
- the Professional Development Centre, Formby, estimated at 15 homes;
- the former TT Cables/Peoples site, Bootle, estimated at 110 homes.
Those figures are the Council's own, from Table 1 of its Cabinet report, totalling 245 homes across the three sites. Earlier press coverage referred to "around 230 properties" without a site-by-site split. The published report is the accurate source, and for this field it says 120.
What Cabinet decided here was to declare the site surplus and authorise a licence for Sovini to carry out feasibility work. That work, the report says, "will include a number of ecology surveys due to the close proximity to the sand dunes beyond the site boundary". The Corporate Learning Centre currently on the site is to be relocated.
Feasibility work is not planning permission. Two further decisions stand between that and a bulldozer: a disposal decision, which returns to Cabinet once terms are negotiated, and a planning application, on which residents have a formal right to comment.
To be fair and clear: the Council is entitled to bring forward proposals for its own land. Residents are equally entitled to insist that any proposal respects the Local Plan, the ecology of the Sefton Coast, and the capacity of Ainsdale's roads and services. That is what this is about, nothing more.
The record
How we got here
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2012 to 2016
Residents campaign over the site's future while Sefton's Local Plan is drawn up, arguing the field cannot support intensive development.
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April 2017
"A Local Plan for Sefton" is adopted. Allocation MN2.8 gives the site 9.2 hectares and an indicative capacity of 120 homes. Policy MN2 adds that the site "will include an Ecological Improvement Area to be developed as a nature reserve alongside the housing allocation", with its extent "determined following the completion of future evidence".
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2022
A pre-application enquiry discusses around 221 homes. Natural England is consulted. No application follows at that time.
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April to June 2026
Rumours of survey activity prompt residents to write to the Council and submit a request for the ecology evidence. On 5 June the Council refuses it in full, on the grounds that the reports were commissioned to inform the valuation of the land for sale.
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15 July 2026
Stand Up For Southport and the Liverpool Echo report the Sefton 2030 proposals. Residents learn from the press that Cabinet will decide within days, while the information request is still outstanding.
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23 July 2026
Cabinet approves item 35. The site is declared surplus and the feasibility licence is authorised.
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29 July 2026
The internal review works. Sefton releases six ecology reports it commissioned itself. They record a great crested newt on the field, grassland linked to a European priority habitat, and a plant colony thought to be the only native one of its kind in South Lancashire. All the fieldwork dates from 2023.
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Next
Feasibility surveys, then a disposal decision back at Cabinet, then a planning application. The application is the point where residents' comments carry legal weight. We will publish the reference number, the deadline and a plain-English guide to commenting the day we learn of it.
Material considerations
What will matter when the application comes
Planning decisions turn on material planning considerations, not on how many people object. These are the grounds residents here are focused on.
Housing numbers
The Local Plan's indicative capacity is 120 homes and the Council's own July 2026 report uses the same figure. Indicative is not an absolute ceiling, but a scheme well above it has to be justified against the development plan, and against everything else the plan requires of this site.
Wildlife, on the Council's own evidence
Its own licensed ecologist recorded an adult female great crested newt on the field on 18 May 2023 and recommended further survey work. Parts of the grassland are assessed as closest to SD8 fixed dune grassland, a community corresponding with the European priority habitat "grey dunes". The Sefton Coast SAC, SSSI, Ramsar site and the Ainsdale and Birkdale Sandhills LNR are all recorded as "immediately adjacent to the site".
An ageing evidence base
All that survey work was carried out in 2023. The consultants' own professional standard says that beyond three years a report "is unlikely to still be valid". Three further pieces of work they recommended have not been produced, and the Council confirms it has commissioned no Habitats Regulations Assessment, though the Local Plan requires the application to enable one.
Roads and access
Sandringham Road narrows considerably beyond Knowle Avenue. Construction traffic, and then the daily traffic of a completed estate, where 120 homes could mean roughly 200 extra cars, need honest assessment.
Local services and drainage
GP and dental capacity in Ainsdale is already stretched, and school places must be planned for rather than assumed. The field also absorbs a great deal of water today; development changes where that water goes, and the drainage strategy has to show it.
Openness
Our information request was refused outright in June, then answered nearly two months late in July, and only after a formal internal review. Items are still missing. We will keep asking, politely and publicly, and we will publish what we get.
Get involved
Nobody should find out when the diggers arrive.
The planning application is the moment residents' comments carry legal weight, and the window for it is short. Neighbours living beside the field are building a list so that the facts, the documents and the deadlines reach everyone at the same time. No spam, no politics, no party lines.
Opening shortly
The residents' WhatsApp group
The group is being set up now. The join link will appear here the moment it is live, so bookmark this page or check back in a few days.
When it opens, we will only ever use contact details to keep you updated about this campaign. They will never be shared with anyone else, and you can ask to be removed at any time.
Questions
Questions neighbours are asking
Is building definitely going ahead?
No. What was agreed on 23 July 2026 allows feasibility work: surveys and early designs. Two further decisions stand between that and construction. The Council has to agree terms with Sovini and take a disposal decision back at Cabinet, and Sovini then has to win planning permission through a public application. That said, the direction of travel is clear, which is why residents are organising now rather than later.
Can the Council build on its own land?
It can bring forward proposals, yes, but those proposals are judged against "A Local Plan for Sefton", which gives this site an indicative capacity of 120 homes and requires an Ecological Improvement Area alongside it. Those safeguards exist because residents campaigned for them between 2012 and 2016.
Do objections actually achieve anything?
Comments on a planning application are not a petition. The Council must weigh every valid planning point raised. Numbers against the Local Plan, ecology, highway safety, drainage and infrastructure capacity are all valid points. The 120 figure and the nature reserve requirement are themselves proof that organised, evidence-based residents' input changes outcomes.
Is this campaign against social housing?
No. Who might live in the homes is not our concern and carries no weight in planning law anyway. Our focus is entirely on planning matters: how many homes, the wildlife on the field, the roads, the drainage, and the pressure on local services.
Who runs this site?
Residents living beside the field, on behalf of neighbours around it. We pay for it ourselves, we are not affiliated with any political party, and everything published here is sourced: the adopted Local Plan, Sefton's own Cabinet papers, the ecology reports the Council released to us, and its correspondence. We will put our names to it publicly once the residents' group is up and running.