Way cleared for Liverpool Waters park
Reserved matters approval has been granted for a five-acre park with cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in the Central Docks area.
The granting of consent represents a major marker in the maturing of the waterfront business district, according to Pete Swift, director of Planit-IE, adviser to developer Peel L&P.
Swift told Place North West: “This is a massive step forward and will have a catalytic impact not just on the wider development, but on the whole neighbourhood.”
A ‘wet woodland’ is proposed for the riverside park. Credit: Planit-IE
Swift added: “It’s not just about the park, it’s the whole infrastructure, and it will set the pattern for development of the entire project. This scheme can have the transformative power of the park at the Mayfield development in Manchester, and allow us to move beyond that tired narrative of ‘Shanghai on the Mersey’ by creating a really humane environment that will give the project its identity.”
Chris Capes, director of development for Peel at Liverpool Waters, last week told Place of the volume of work going on behind the scenes to move the project on. Work on 600 homes across two developments has begun in recent weeks.
The professional team on the public spaces and infrastructure project also includes Arup, Pell Frischmann, Curtins, Hannan Associates and Walker Sime.
Plans include a park with large feature trees, community garden planting and a playground, a pedestrian and cycle bridge, and canalside walkway. The new road system will see six streets added to the area, while features of the spaces include a central meeting hub and a dock heritage plaza.
The park will soften the impact of proposed large buildings. Credit: Planit-IE
Will this proceed before there are any confirmed developments, though?
By Anonymous
All welcome news, but still waiting for news of the large buildings that the park is supposed to soften the impact of? What is still surprising is the lack of any potential development around Evertons new stadium.
This is £600m worth of the £800m recently quoted by Peel. So what can we expect soon?
By Liverpolitis
The kind of quality scheme Liverpool needs.
By SW
I am 100% in favour of this park, but not sure how they can call this a business district as at the moment I don`t think they`ve attracted any, but maybe we have a surprise in store.
Also not sure what Mayfield is that Pete Swift is referring to but he seems confident that the park will lead to a positive outcome for Liverpool Waters.
I like the announcement that six new streets will be created and result in new neighbourhoods, as this could prove to be a template for neighbourhoods in the wider city.
By Anonymous
All looks very nice and I trust it happens, but has any consideration been taken with regard to the promity of the Irish Sea and Mersey and all the elements involved, salt, high winds and cold temperatures?
By Just saying
Article updated with info on Mayfield location re comment by ‘Anonymous’.
By Neil Tague
Will it compliment in any way the garden festival and what ecology is there – perhaps in regard to bird life?
By Lizzy Baggot
Poor article where exactly is it and who pays whilst roads are crumbling and c tax going up.
By Ada
Don’t be fooled, the park is one of the carrots being dangled by Peel to gain acceptance of their true aims.
Many years ago I attended a presentation of their Wirral Waters plans for their ‘Shanghai skyline” in Merseyside.
The presentation was fantastic, we were going to get landscaped boulevards from Bidston, leading to hotels and skyscrapers on the docks.
Forward through to the present day and what do we have… No boulevard… no skyscrapers… No hotels, but instead a stack of cheap houses which look like they are shipping containers transferred from the docks next door and spray painted red to disguise them.
Oh… And now Pete Swift advisor to Peel
says that Shanghai on Merseyside is a tired narrative… So what happened to the promise Pete?
By Anonymous
Will this be another project similar to festival gardens that doesn’t have any infrastructure for maintenance, all the money goes into creating it, then it slowly slides into ruin when there’s no money to maintain
By Hannah Lance
This is an excuse by Peel for not being able to develop the LW’s site. They are happy to develop elsewhere in the NW but for some reason have hit a brick wall (if it was ever built) in LW. It’s time they admitted it for whatever reason, then perhaps a more committed organisation can succeed at finishing the project.
By Liverpool4Progress
The principle of the new park in the central docks is excellent but I worry about Pete Swift’s dismissal of the “Shanghai on the Mersey “ narrative in favour of a Mayfield Park style landscaping project. My interpretation of that is that rather than capitalising on our heritage of Victorian and Edwardian monumentalise (whether that means warehouses or palatial public buildings) we should instead look at functional in-filling projects. It is no coincidence that the city region’s most enduring and revered public open spaces are unashamedly monumental and ambitious. Think of the Sefton Park Palm House, the Isla Gladstone Conservatory in Stanley Park, the new Pier Head, the resilient Central Park Birkenhead and even the historic Newsham Park, Calderstones and Princess Park. These are unapologetically Grand Designs and are rightly revered by the people. In contrast, Festival Gardens was impressive in its scale and engineering achievement but ultimately failed because it delivered nothing more lasting than a methane station.
By Jack Stopforth
Sick and tired of all these glossy images of developments. New buildings with landscaping that looks inviting. Yet most of the recent developments haven’t a weed in sight never mind trees, green spaces. City council need to get out and start making developers work to plans agreed, and get landscaping installed!
By Ron Vaughan
A park? What a cop out.
By Anonymous
Looks very futuristic. Good luck
By Dave addison
Opening up green spaces in the city aera is brilliant,
But on rimroase Valley Litherland way ,they want to put a road through it….and to be honest apart from croxteth park north Liverpool south sefton areas don’t have any large areas of green space….and I actually live by dunnings bridge road….
By Ccal