Peel switches focus to Government as city approves Liverpool Waters scheme
PEEL Group’s £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme has been given the green light by the city council’s planning committee.
The company gained unanimous approval for its outline planning application to regenerate 60 hectares of dockland in Liverpool, and the decision will now be referred to the government which will have to decide whether or not it is called in for a lengthy public inquiry.
An application of this size – it is the biggest ever outline application submitted in the UK – could usually have been expected to be called in under past administrations, but Peel has threatened to walk away from the scheme if it is.
Speaking after the decision was announced yesterday, Liverpool City Council leader Joe Anderson described it as “one of the most significant and far-reaching made in Liverpool’s recent history”.
“The scale of what is being proposed is breath-taking – it represents a £5.5bn investment to create thousands of jobs, provide new housing and attract new businesses and more visitors to the city. It is a scheme which is unprecedented in its ambition, scope and potential to regenerate a city.
“Liverpool has to grow and redevelop if we are to thrive and succeed in the future. We do not live in the past, we are not a museum.”
He said that the committee was “well aware” of concerns about the impact that the scheme would have on the city’s World Heritage Status, but added that he believed the conditions attached to the scheme left it confident that this could be maintained.
“If this application had been rejected then we would have been left with huge stretches of derelict dockland cheek-by-jowl with our World Heritage site.
“Instead we now have the prospect of one of the most ambitious schemes ever seen in this country taking shape – it is one that will transform Liverpool’s fortunes for future generations.”
However, English Heritage has argued that the council’s assessment of the scheme “significantly downplayed the adverse impacts”.
The organisation said that although it recognised that the council needed to consider the employment-providing potential of the scheme, it felt that the adverse impact of the scheme “has been given substantially less weight than we believe is appropriate”.
“If the scheme in its current form goes ahead, in our view the setting of some of Liverpool’s most significant historic buildings will be severely compromised, the archaeological remains of parts of the historic docks are at risk of destruction, and the city’s historic urban landscape will be permanently unbalanced.”
