About Free Southport

A genuinely free directory of sole traders and small businesses in Southport, Merseyside. Built by one person who lives here.

Why it exists

I'm Graham. I run a small web studio in Southport and two repair businesses, and when I set up as a sole trader I went looking for a local site to put my details on. There wasn't one that worked. The one that took my details never listed me, and then rang to sell me a package. Most of the people doing real work in this town, the groomers, the walkers, the gardeners, the window cleaners, have no website, no company registration and nowhere to be found except a recommendation thread on Facebook that disappears in a week.

So this is the site I was looking for. A plain list of who does what in Southport, checked with the people who do it, free to be on.

What free means

Nobody pays to be listed. Nobody can pay to move up the list. There are no lead fees, no commission, no "premium" tier and no sales calls. The links to verified businesses' own websites are real links. If that ever changes, it will say so on this page first.

How the lists are ordered

Verified owners first, then alphabetically. That's the whole rule and it's written at the top of every category page.

How listings are checked

Every listing shows one of two things. Listed from public records means it was compiled from information the business has already published: its own website or public business page, or public registers such as Companies House. Verified by owner means the owner has confirmed the listing with us, by email to their own domain, by a code sent in the post, or on the phone, and the date is shown.

Separately, individual facts are marked checked with a date when we've looked them up on the official register: a Sefton Council animal activities licence, an Environment Agency waste carrier registration, a Companies House status. Anything else a business tells us about itself is marked stated by owner. A listing with "no checks yet" is one we've compiled but haven't yet confirmed anything about, and we say so rather than pretend.

Home addresses of sole traders are never published. We show the area instead.

Reviews

There are no reviews on the site yet, and no borrowed star ratings from anywhere else. When reviews come, each one will be tied to a real job and verified with the customer, with a published policy and a right of reply for the business.

Who's behind it

Free Southport is built and run by Graham Kennedy trading as Draxiq, 178 Gravel Lane, Southport PR9 8BX. Draxiq builds websites; Free Southport doesn't sell them, and no business on this site will be contacted by Draxiq to buy anything. The two are kept apart on purpose.

Southport local media

If you want to know what's going on in the town, these are the people who cover it: Stand Up For Southport, OTS News, the Southport Visiter (now part of the Liverpool Echo) and Mighty Radio.

Contact

Email hello@draxiq.com. To correct or remove a listing, use this page. The privacy notice says what we hold and why.