Life after Southport attack as Pleasureland owner makes plea

As Southport continues to recover from the tragic attack, a local business owner is urging people to help make the town "great again". The owner of Southport Pleasureland, Norman Wallis, has pleaded with people to make a conscious effort to help make Southport what it was before the knife attack took the lives of three little girls.

Alice Da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were brutally killed in the stabbing, on July 29, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town. Eight children and two adults were hospitalised with injuries as a result. Since the attack, the town has been in mourning, seeing the last of three funerals take place earlier this week, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Norman has now made a heartfelt plea for people to support local businesses. He said: "It's horrific and people don't realise just how bad it is. The only people who have managed to do okay the last month is flower shops.

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"The King's been now which is great and we've got to move forward now, we've got to tell people to stand with Southport. It's a beautiful place to live, work and visit but the government and the council need to help us otherwise we're going to have resort failure.

"We know what's happened to places like Rhyl and Morecambe when that's happened. We've got some fabulous plans here but I know we have the solutions to Southport's problems and we can make this place great again, but we need support."

On Sunday, September 1, a special fundraising event in partnership with the Royal British Legion will take place at Southport Pleasureland in remembrance of the schoolgirls. It will be a day of