WIRRAL Council is planning to spend nearly £5.7m reviving a town centre following a devastating explosion seven years ago. The funding is one of several projects the local authority is moving forward in New Ferry.

The explosion in a former furniture store off Boundary Road tore through the town’s high street injuring 81 people, making 78 people homeless and leaving 28 businesses closed behind police cordons. Seven businesses were destroyed and never reopened and since then, those who live in the town argue it has continued to see a decline.

Since the explosion, Wirral Council has been working with its partner, the Regenda Group, to develop plans providing new town centre homes alongside improving the high street with work already starting on two sites. Earlier this year, councillors unanimously approved the creation of 43 new affordable homes providing 33 homes and 10 flats off New Chester Road.

Wirral Council was previously awarded £3.2m from the government’s Future High Streets fund, some of which will go towards improving the area outside the shops on Bebington Road. The plan is to “make the shopping areas more attractive for traders, visitors and residents and will include traffic-calming measures, new planting and seating, additional CCTV to deter anti-social behaviour and a re-provided public car park.”

£623,523 was awarded towards highways improvements while the rest of the money would support the development of new homes in the town.  Wirral Council said original proposals included the re-opening of Bebington Road to vehicles and minimal changes but following public engagement in September 2022, there was strong support for the pedestrianised area to remain and other traffic calming measures.

An update on the scheme was recently given in a report presented to councillors at a Policy and Resources committee on November 6. This proposed redistributing other grant funding “to cover the rising costs and a redesign of the scheme in order to fully deliver the project” with a total budget of £5.657m.

The local authority said: “Due to significant rises in material and labour costs due to inflation and a redesign of the scheme, this has had a significant impact on the overall costs, which has resulted in additional funding now being required to fully deliver the regeneration proposals, to the expectations of the community.”

Funding for improvements to Bebington Road has not been secured yet though remaining funds leftover following land purchases may be used. The council is also looking at whether existing grant funding could be reallocated and at ways to reduce costs which will take several months.

According to a regeneration committee report published in September, construction work on the high street is expected to start in April 2025 and finished by December. The first homes around Bebington Road are expected to be finished by June 2025.

Development of of 43 homes on the sites of Woodhead Street car park, buildings on New Chester Road and a former Co-Op is due to start in the summer of 2025 with demolition beginning earlier that year.