Liverpool to lodge Project Jennifer CPO
LIVERPOOL City Council is pushing ahead with the compulsory purchase order (CPO) required for the £150m Project Jennifer regeneration scheme in north Liverpool.
An update prepared ahead of a council cabinet meeting on Friday said it is “close to proceeding with the making of a CPO” and expects to do it by the end of the year.
However the authority is anticipating an inquiry into the CPO, which will be held in mid-2011, and a decision is expected in early 2012.
Progress on Project Jennifer was held up in 2008 when Tesco applied to build a food store on land it owned and challenged a refusal in the High Court.
It lost this action in June which allowed developer St Modwen and Sainsbury’s to move forward with their original plans for the site, which will be anchored by a new Sainsbury’s supermarket. It also includes 80,000 sq ft of non-food retail space, a market hall, 481 new homes, a health centre and a library.
The council expects the development to be delivered in three phases with the first due to start in the summer of 2012. Phases two and three would start in 2014. The order, which will cover an area around Great Homer Street, will now not include properties on Skirving St, the Central Tin site, the electricity substation and plots of land on Scotland Road.
The report states: “The delivery of Project Jennifer will contribute to the regeneration by providing a new district centre, new community facilities and new commercial and residential space and by acting as a stimulus for further development to occur to improve the area.
“To enable the redevelopment to proceed a compulsory purchase order is needed to ensure that all the interests in the Order Land can be acquired in a timely fashion.”
