THE delivery of 1,500 new homes in the centre of Birkenhead have reached “a milestone” as major agreements were signed off to kickstart the development. The Hind Street Urban Village is a major regeneration project put forward by Wirral Council to develop a large site next to Birkenhead Central station.
The new development would see the homes built over 10 to 15 years alongside a new school, new commercial space, as well as the demolition of two Mersey Tunnel flyovers. 600 homes are expected to be delivered in the first phase of the project with some works expected to start next year.
The development has been described as a “landmark” by Wirral Council and will help contribute a large number of homes to plans for 14,400 across the Wirral for two decades. The local authority said it will be “a model of urban living”, well connected to Liverpool City Centre through the proximity of Birkenhead Central and Green Lane Station, and quality open spaces and active travel routes.
At a policy and resources committee meeting on October 2, councillors approved to sign a £1.8m agreement with its partner Ion Property Developments to oversee the project, a £36m contract with John Sisk and Son to prepare the site for development, as well as an £2.6m agreement with Cadent to move gasworks on the site. The costs are expected to be covered by more than £50m of government and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority funding.
Ion, a development company based in Liverpool, has been involved in a number of complex regeneration schemes including the £60m Marine Point development, the £100m Wolverhampton Interchange, and £40m of investments in and around Liverpool Lime Street station. It has been a long term partner with the local authority on the project.
The move forward was praised by Birkenhead councillor Pat Cleary who said it was “a milestone in the delivery of this project” and would be “incredibly important” for the town. Other councillors said the local authority had to deliver the scheme in order to regenerate Birkenhead with calls to advertise at the site when work starts.
Regeneration committee chair Cllr Tony Jones said council staff had gone above and beyond to get the “exciting” project to this stage, adding: “It’s something we can all look forward to. It’s something that I will be absolutely cock-a-hoop about when the first residents move in.”
However, the project still faces several hurdles in order to move forward including the awarding of £28m towards the project by Homes England. While no announcement has been made, Wirral Council said the government housing body was positive about the project and “a decision is expected in principle to award the funding.”
Other hoops to jump through include planning permission and the pending purchase of the Dock Branch trainline by the local authority to help deliver a £15m new park. This park is eventually expected to run from Wirral Waters to Green Lane train station.
Planning approval and buying land for the Dock Branch park are expected to come before councillors later this year and tonight’s decision follows a number of significant steps forward for the scheme which has had £2.8m spent on it so far according to one report. £22m has been awarded to the project by the city region and in August, the council approved a £395,000 contract with Ion to support the planning application and business case.
The total costs to move the gas works on the site is expected to be around £5.5m as Wirral Council and Cadent will also need to buy different parcels of land off each other in order to do this. The agreement signed with Cadent could commit the council to spending £2.6m but the costs are expected to be covered by grants and council officers have had “positive discussions” about releasing some funding early.
Buying up all the land needed for the development is also expected to be a big cost with an estimated total of around £13m, of which £2.6m has already been bought by the local authority. Some of this is expected to be covered by grant funding.
The project has all party support though a report before the committee highlighted it commits the council a “very significant level” of spending to deliver initial ground works as well as staff resources, even if the former is covered by external funding.
While it was hoped the grant funding from the government could cover some of the council’s staffing costs, this could have led to the project being referred to the treasury for further scrutiny and approval that could jeopardise funding for the entire project. Despite the high costs, Wirral Council believes the development will bring “a major boost to the local economy with effectively a new community being created right on the edge of the town centre on a site which currently delivers no economic benefit to the area.”
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