£8m Dobbies Garden World will bring 120 jobs to Speke

DOBBIES Garden Centres is to invest £8m in a new garden centre that will create 120 jobs in Speke.

It has applied for planning permission to develop the 8.78 acre Dobbies Garden World at the proposed Boulevard Business and Leisure Park on Speke Boulevard, Liverpool.

The centre will offer more than 10,000 plants, shrubs and trees as well as large outdoor areas and a specialist aquatics department. It will also include a farm foodhall, offering locally grown produce and a restaurant serving freshly prepared meals and home baking.

Constructed from sustainably-sourced timber and other natural construction materials, the finished building will also include a range of environmentally-friendly features including energy efficient lighting and rainwater recycling.

Stuart Wright, director of property at Dobbies Garden Centres, said: “We want to help boost the local economy in a sustainable way by providing jobs for local people.

“We will also be working with Merseyside and Cheshire suppliers to fill our Farm Foodhall shelves, feature on the menu of our restaurant and help provide the huge gardening and plant products.”

Owned by North West property giant Peel, Boulevard Business and Leisure Park is a proposed mixed-use development with offices, industrial units and leisure facilities.

Roger Wheeldon, senior development surveyor at Peel, said: “Peel has a development planned on retained land next to the site, which will include dining facilities which will complement the Garden World and will be built in a similar style and with similar materials.

“These premises will be used by visitors to the proposed Dobbies Garden World, and will also provide new dining facilities for local customers and the many people who travel along Speke Boulevard every day.”