Liverpool opens waterfront consultation
BDP and West 8 have drawn up a draft vision and supplementary planning document to guide riverside development, on which the public are asked to offer feedback.
Urban design and landscape specialist West 8 and multidisciplinary firm BDP were appointed last year to work on the SPD as Liverpool City Council looked to set “a benchmark for waterfront regeneration in Europe”.
The vision sets out proposals for the future of Liverpool’s cherished waterfront over the next 20 to 30 years, with a stated goal of creating a more inclusive, accessible and thriving waterfront. Three core principles are set out:
- Connected – Reconnecting neighbourhoods to the Mersey, ensuring everyone can access and enjoy the waterfront.
- Free and Green – Prioritising free-to-access public space and green infrastructure to support climate resilience.
- Growth – Supporting high-quality, heritage-sensitive development that creates places to live, work and play and benefits the whole city.
This could draw something of a line in the sand for Liverpool in terms of setting its own course: for years, Liverpool’s civic leaders and key developers seemed in a constant battle to appease Unesco, lest the city lose its world heritage status: but with taller buildings and large-scale projects such as the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium leading to that status being removed in 2021, that is no longer an issue.
LCC said that a big goal is to improve connectivity and linkages, both north/ south and west/east, and to create new public realm with an emphasis on quality of place. The vision will also address conservation and enhancement of the natural and historic environment, as well as climate change and the Council’s ambition to deliver net zero by 2030.
The draft SPD will translate that into practical planning guidance, design principles and development parameters covering such matters as movement, active travel, green and grey infrastructure, identity and character of different areas along the waterfront.
Once adopted, the SPD will be a material planning consideration.
Stakeholders who have fed into the process include Liverpool BID Company, Grosvenor, Tate Liverpool, Peel, National Museum Liverpool, the Canal & River Trust, General Projects, and Liverpool Yacht Club.
A public engagement event will be held on Monday 7 July at Liverpool Town Hall. Throughout the consultation, which runs until 8 August, all documents will be available to view at the Cunard Building and at Liverpool Central Library.
- View the online consultation here.
Once consultation ends the final SPD will will be prepared and presented for LCC cabinet sign-off in autumn.
Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said it is the council’s duty to ensure the waterfront’s future development befits its status:
“Our vision for the riverfront is to honour its heritage whilst embracing innovation. This plan should be both a celebration of our rich maritime history and a blueprint for embracing its potential, helping to grow communities and create new jobs.
“We’ve already had some great conversations with a number of stakeholders and now we need to hear the views of our residents. Their feedback will help guide this exciting new chapter in our waterfront story and help ensure everyone continues to enjoy and benefit from this amazing asset for generations to come.”
Cllr Nick Small, LCC cabinet member for development and growth, said: “Liverpool’s waterfront is instantly recognisable and a principal reason we’re one of the UK’s most visited cities and one of the most filmed in Europe.
“It has been transformed over recent decades and is once again a huge part of the city’s economic engine. Now with this new plan we all have a chance to play our part in shaping its future.
“The ambition, scale and scope of what is being planned from Festival Gardens to beyond Everton’s new stadium has the potential to transform all the communities connected to the Mersey. It’s not often we have the chance to make history but helping to shape this waterfront plan is that moment, and I hope people embrace this consultation to make this and plan the best it can possibly be.”
Liverpool City Council love nothing more than spending money on consultations or SPDs.
By Del
Amazing, it’s been all of five minutes since the last consultation was announced. Can we have a consultation on consultations maybe, so we can tell you that they’re a complete waste to time?
By Roy
Liam’s a good bloke. Even Cllr Small is a late conversion to the value of investment. But neither has a grip on the mid-ranking planning officers, who exist in a parallel universe where notions such as viability are but mere irritating details to be swept aside.
Count the tower cranes, gents. It ain’t working. Less consultation, more action.
By Anonymous
All talk and waffle, if you read between the lines they’ll still be restricting the height of buildings and the constant referring to heritage all but confirms that.
All this mention of active travel and accessibility is just a pain as at the moment the waterfront is accessible all the way from Cressington to the new IOM ferry terminal and then once extended to the new Everton Stadium that will be it as the rest is docks. How about they start planning now for a new rail station at Vauxhall and not wait till the housing comes as its arrival is inevitable.
Can’t they just get things done instead of these endless consultations and 15 year plans, as we are still waiting for action at King’s Dock, Ten Streets, Williamson Square, Chinatown, London Rd lower end, Festival Gardens, ex Police Headquarters, and so on.
By Anonymous
Labour out
By Anonymous
Another week and yet another consultation and another masterplan about to be written about and for Liverpool’s waterfront and yes history states that nothing will ever come of the masterplan/development plan or consultation. The only beneficiaries to these plans will be the businesses that have been involved in creating them. It is said that the SPD will be a guide for the development of the waterfront for the next 20 to 30 years. The cynic/realist inside me says that means that there will be another 20 to 30 consultations. I really love ‘my’ city and I really love ‘my’ waterfront and I spend many hours down there through both work and leisure and as every new plan emerges my hopes and dreams for its development are raised but then a moment later are dashed by the realisation that they will never happen because after all this is LCC where nothing ever happens or can or will happen. Oh and surely rather than the plan being unveiled with the public being invited to the town hall the plan should be unveiled or discussed in a building on the waterfront as that is what it is about? Perhaps that is too logical for LCC?
By Brendan R
Thought planning was being made easier so quicker, all we here about is plans for this and that, just get on with it
By Anonymous
Turning the Strand from a motorway that cuts off the city from the water into a linear park is undoubtedly the right ambition to improve the health and vibrancy of the city.
However, retaining 4 lanes of traffic is not the way to do it. What park has 4 lanes of traffic bellowing out pollution and noise? Two lanes would be permissible, but 4 just a dual carriageway with trees.
By Tom Corbett
Look how we were able to charge forward having dropped UNESCO. Not unlike having dropped Brussels
By Anonymous
What is there to consult on? get all empty/void plots built on (old figure factory being the most important) , allow developers to build higher, finish Princes Dock and Kings Dock, get a tram built from Everton to Cressington, plant more trees and clean the streets
By GetItBuilt!
Why is Liverpool dithering on building the new cruise terminal just look at the effects it had on run down places like Barcelona it transformed its Growth I just don’t understand the delay .
By Paul
Why is Liverpool council allowing the feature less brick
Apartments to be built on the waterfront surely they should have features that are pleasing on the surroundings and eye but no they look awful especially the new one built near the Isle of Man terminal totally unacceptable and uninspiring .
By Anonymous
Absolutely mad. The Strand is the only way to get between north and south (thanks already the council). Liverpool One depends on people being able to get to it. These plans would deliver an economic hammer blow to the city centre, just as sure as the last lot of our money they blew just created widely predicted traffic jams.
By John
Anonymous, 17 June @ 1.40pm. Surely it’s the planning committee not the planning officers that are the issue e.g. tall buildings as mentioned elsewhere in the comments? Also, we must hold some sort of record for strategies and consultations in Liverpool – particularly ones that never actually result in anything happening on the ground. As for the waterfront being difficult to access, the bits that are worth accessing are very accessible and – generally – free already, so who is being disenfranchised at the moment and how?
By Anonymous
I can’t wait for this consultation to happen so we can move forward quickly towards the next consultation. We’re consulting at a real rate of knots now !
By Connie Sultant
Having destroyed the waterfront, with the loss of international heritage site status, building some completely ugly buildings. Now they what to engage. Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted springs to mind.
By Birkenhead Boy
Having been consulted on this, its evident that there has been wilful disregard for the realities of funding or maintaining any of this, wild assumptions made about public control over private ownerships, and ignorance of the implications on future development viability (contra NPPF). I await evidence the urban design consultants have changed their tune and woken up to some of these – otherwise it is indeed just lines on a map.
Agree with other comments that, unfortunately, despite improved political leadership, LCC really does need to look harshly at its mid-ranks when it comes to planning and development.
By Lines
Why this obsession with The Strand being turned into a linear park,do these people want to deter cars completely.
The Strand is a major route through the city and needs to be left alone, this Council has already messed up traffic flow by restricting Lime St thus causing major delays in the City every day. We have an average and incomplete public transport network, which means people need cars for work, shopping, and leisure, so unless this council wants to ruin the local economy even more they should leave the Strand alone, I mean come on its not the M6 its a main road and it has traffic lights and pedestrian crossings for people to use. We have plenty of fresh air on the river for people to take in, and if the council want to have open spaces and trees how about giving builders the opportunity to build and express themselves by creating squares and pocket parks like the Victorians did, and surround them with attractive buildings.
By Anonymous
‘Ambition, scale and scope’………………………..so why BDP? ‘Designers’ of dull corporate boxes and out of context, out of date hospitals. This is not the company to be involved in one of the greatest waterfront settings in the world.
By Gavin E
Ah BDP. Where do they put all the new architects they employ in the city region on the back of this, Hind Street and the stadium. Good luck finding any.
By David Watts
The Councils ambition to deliver net zero by 2030 just goes to show how out of tune with reality they really are. The company I work for have produced hydrogen powered commercial vehicles in Germany. We have sold a handful in the Uk. The parent company is now scaling back and mothballing due to a lack of government funding and slow take up. How on earth do LCC think they can achieve the impossible in the next 5 years. I wonder which will get over the line first, Net Zero or Rotherham’s ridiculous pie in the sky Mersey barrage.
By Stephen Hart
I just think that the next 12 months are critical for Liverpool. Pall Mall, Festival Gardens, New Town submission, Kings Dock. Words quickly need to turn to action before apathy in the market kicks in.
By Anonymous