Four key schemes approved by Liverpool Council planning committee

In its final session before the new year, Liverpool City Council planning committee considered a packed programme today (December 21), including four key proposals.

Two were approved, together with two more which had previously been consented.

A plan to demolish several buildings on the city centre’s Parr Street, including Parr Street music recording studios – where artists such as Black Sabbath, Diana Ross, Moby, Pulp, The Charlatans, Coldplay, Doves, Take That and The Beautiful South have recorded – and replace them with 70 apartments, eight aparthotel units and 12,000 sq ft of commercial space, was passed.

This was despite 186 individual objections and concerns over the cultural loss of the recording studios, and the physical impact on the surrounding area of the proposed scheme.

Developer PJ Percival Construction aims to create a five-to-six storey residential-led scheme, which has been scaled back from earlier plans for a six-to-eight-storey development.

Last year assurances were given that the studios complex would survive, following an outcry among the city’s musos. They will now relocate to Kempston Street in the Islington area of the city.

Parr Street Studios was built in the 1930s and is spread over four floors. It contains two recording studios, two bars, 11 offices, a 12-bed hotel and a self contained hotel complex with six mini-bedrooms known as Podzzz.

The proposal was passed by five votes to two, with one abstention.

Plans for a new 189-room aparthotel nearby, in Duke Street, were also approved at today’s committee.

Proposed Duke Street Hotel

Duke Street Hotel, linked to Liverpool developer Iliad Group, is behind the proposal, located on a site between Duke Street and Parr Street, which is currently a surface car park and a 1950s building previously used by Liverpool Music Academy.

The scheme proposes three linked buildings of between five and seven storeys, including a lounge, gym, launderette, coworking, and dining facilities, and one ground floor commercial unit of 188 sq ft, and 38 short-stay car parking spaces.

It will be the first scheme in the North by the unnamed tenant.

There have been objections over the scale and massing of the development, and Liberal councillor, Billy Lake, asked the committee: “Is this how we want our city to look? Blocks of grey and brown?”

Lib Dem councillor, Pat Maloney, described the scheme as “bland and boring”.

However, the committee approved the plans by five votes in favour, with three against.

Today’s committee also approved two more hotel developments totalling more than 250 rooms which had already been approved in 2019.

They were back before the council today because Section 106 agreements for the schemes had not been approved until recently.

Crossfield Exclusive Developments, which is a joint venture between Crossfield Developments and Exclusive Investments, wants to build a 202-bedroom hotel off Norfolk Street, initially presenting its scheme in 2019.

The eight-storey development includes a gym, bar, restaurant, and outdoor roof terrace, and is located on the former site of Liver Grease, Oil & Chemicals.

It is part of a wider phased development, the first of which, including 129 apartments, was completed last year.

The committee passed the plans unanimously.

No 2 Queen Square

Liverpool-based Promenade Estates was also back before the committee for its plans to convert its listed headquarters into a boutique hotel, which were first launched in July 2019.

The St Johns House hotel, part of the city centre’s Queen Square, will see the Sir Alfred Waterhouse-designed building converted into a 43-bedroom hotel.

The developer said the Dr Duncan’s pub, situated on the ground floor on St John’s Lane, will be unaffected.

The committee passed the scheme unanimously, with nine votes in favour.