Call for new body to oversee future development of Liverpool’s waterfront

A new advisory group should be set up to oversee the future development of Liverpool’s iconic waterfront.

That is one of the suggestions in a positioning paper launched today (October 19) by Liverpool BID Company.

With a new masterplan under way for the next 10 to 15 years at either end of the waterfront, including major developments at Bramley-Moore Dock and the Festival Gardens, as well as the significant changes at Royal Albert Dock, King’s Dock, museums and galleries, Liverpool’s waterfront is in a period of continued regeneration.

Attracting millions of visitors each year, along with a growing residential population, the waterfront is widely acknowledged to be the jewel in the city’s crown.

The new vision for Liverpool’s waterfront, set out in the Liverpool Waterfront Positioning Paper is based on several months of interviews with those who manage key sites along the waterfront, those who live and work there, invest and want to develop.

The vision is intended to act as a guide for future development, to provide a framework for decision making, and to shape the storytelling and offer of the city’s most iconic site to help attract investment and stimulate growth.

Commissioned by Liverpool BID Company, it calls for a unifying vision to provide a framework for any future work, to provide a coherent strategy and approach.

The advisory group, made up of stakeholders, experts, voluntary sector and community representatives, would act as a driving force for the vision, encouraging conversation and communication with the community, advocates and promotion, lead on partnerships and evaluate strategic development, monitor and evaluate progress.

It includes six guiding principles including a need to preserve and reflect the heritage of Liveprool’s world class waterfront, ensuring that future development integrates with the existing fabric while celebrating Liverpool’s sense of place.

Bill Addy, CEO of Liverpool BID Company, said: “Given its global iconic significance, the Liverpool waterfront needs to be governed and managed in a more coherent way to ensure the quality of the development is high enough in future.

“And a more strategic, long term view needs to be taken of the whole area which stretches several miles from the huge opportunity of the original International Garden Festival site in the south, through the Royal Albert Dock Liverpool area in the centre to the north docks and Liverpool Waters up to the development of Everton football stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.”

The Liverpool BID Company has commissioned the Liverpool Waterfront Positioning Paper (LWPP) to capture the views of businesses and organisations with existing assets and active regeneration projects along the waterfront.

In July, 2021, UN heritage body, Unesco, stripped the Liverpool Waterfront of its World Heritage Status.

It blamed years of development for an “irreversible loss” to the historic value of the Victorian docks within the estate.

It said the “outstanding universal value” of Liverpool’s waterfront had been destroyed by new buildings, including Everton’s new £760m stadium.