Liverpool takes Festival Gardens back to drawing board
Ion Developments had signed an exclusivity agreement to build 1,500 homes on a 22-acre chunk of the site but the city council has decided to launch a fresh hunt for a development partner after the agreement expired.
Liverpool City Council’s cabinet will meet next week to approve a recommendation to start the procurement process for a development partner on the Festival Gardens job, four years after Ion became involved with the scheme.
The council anticipates it will launch the search for a developer in early 2023.
The recommendation to procure a development partner follows a year-long review of the site, the council said.
It is hoped the fresh approach will ensure the project comes forward in line with the council’s recently adopted local plan, council plan and the mayoral triple lock policy – aimed at bolstering decision-making processes within the authority following the damning Max Caller report.
Cllr Sarah Doyle, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for development and economy, said: “The city council is now at a critical stage in establishing how this site will progress. Given its strategic importance to our housing programme, it is only right and proper that a major review of our approach was undertaken to ensure it aligns with all the new policies we’ve adopted since our new mayor was elected.
“Now that that review is complete a clear programme has been set out to shape its future direction. If approved, this procurement process will mean adding a year to the original timescales but given the site lay dormant for a quarter of a century our focus is on getting this right, as this scheme will be a home for a whole community for the rest of this century.”
The procurement process would be funded by the council’s existing capital programme and Ion will also be invited to submit a bid.
A spokesperson for Ion Developments said: “We are obviously very disappointed by this approach, particularly given that the council has confirmed on numerous occasions that our performance on the project is not in question and the fact that we have worked seamlessly with the council’s regeneration team to progress the project since our involvement commenced some four and a half years ago.
“We expect to commence formal discussions with the council in the near future to establish how our contribution to date will be recognised and to agree a way that our considerable knowledge can be used to assist with the successful delivery of this important site.”
Scroll down for Ion’s full statement
Once a partner is on board, work to deliver the housing project could begin in 2025, subject to planning approval, the city council said.
Vinci Construction is currently remediating the former landfill site – which once formed part of the International Garden Festival celebrations launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984 – and it has transpired that the excavation works need to go deeper than previously thought.
The cost of the additional remediation work is yet to be determined. The package of enabling work was initially anticipated to cost £45m, with funding coming from Liverpool City Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Homes England.
However, the LCRCA funding is conditional on the city council signing a developer agreement for the Festival Gardens project, meaning some of the funding is currently being withheld.
“The transformation of this site has been a mammoth undertaking and we have worked very closely with contractors to ensure the surrounding communities have been kept up-to-date every step of the way,” Doyle said.
“It’s not a surprise given the sheer scale of the site that the excavation has surpassed what was originally estimated and costed. But whatever the additional costs will be, they will be dwarfed by the long-term economic impact for the city and the millions in revenue that will be generated by the council tax income which we can invest in our front line services.”
Ion Developments’ statement
We understand that officers have made this recommendation to members based upon a belief that there is an unresolvable technical issue in the original developer bidding process which would prevent the use of the previously agreed legal structure and documentation.
Unfortunately, the council has not shared its legal advice in relation to this purported issue, which does concern us, and makes us question both its validity and the motivation behind the recommendation.
We are obviously very disappointed by this approach, particularly given that the council has confirmed on numerous occasions that our performance on the project is not in question and the fact that we have worked seamlessly with the council’s regeneration team to progress the project since our involvement commenced some four and a half years ago.
The council has derived considerable benefit from our involvement in the project including the use of our design and technical information to secure circa £30 million in grant funding. This information has also been used to progress the remediation to date, including the adoption of our masterplan and design specification, upon which the works are based.
This has involved a huge amount of work and expenditure on our part, using our excellent Liverpool-based design team.
Clearly, the council is undergoing a period of upheaval and it would appear from our point of view that this recommendation is directly related to the desire of the council and the commissioners to demonstrate that changes are taking place.
We expect to commence formal discussions with the council in the near future to establish how our contribution to date will be recognised and to agree a way that our considerable knowledge can be used to assist with the successful delivery of this important site.
Hopefully, such an approach will resolve the matter without recourse to litigation.
Local plan, Council plan, Triple lock….in other words strangulation , whereby we will end up with something approaching a massive Brookside type estate with semis and bungalows. Inclusion and social value are mentioned, these are just tick-box phrases that are so vague as to stifle anything bold or imaginative, they talk about the economic impact that council tax revenues will bring in, but have already reduced the number of units from well over 2000 to 1500.
By Anonymous
This site needs to be treated as a once in a generation opportunity to create first class homes. We cannot allow a bland cheap solution anywhere near this . Any location onto a river and near to the city center is a premier location please lets not blow it , this should be a high quality architectural gem and leave a lasting legacy . The councils involvement is a concern especially given its track record.
Lets have a international competition similar to the new Liverpool Uni facility and create something we can be proud of and not regret .
By Paul M - Woolton
If this were anywhere else it would be up and running by now. I really do despair.
By Anonymous
What a load of rubbish in more ways than one.
By Just saying
I have recently visited Festival Gardens and must say the new car park which has been provided by the Main Contractor, is one of high quality. Seamless lines and smooth finishes. If this is a benchmark for the rest of the development, then the residents of Liverpool are in for a treat.
By Anonymous
One of Liverpool’s structural weaknesses is insufficient homes within its boundary in higher council bands: here’s an opportunity to make up lost ground, but I fear it is about to be lost on the altar of ideology. I bet existing home-owners in the area are getting extremely nervous at what might transpire.
By Sceptical
This is worrying news. The danger is that the Council are guided down a route of “a developer with a proven track record for housing delivery” i.e., your standard volume housebuilder. This site needs to be a destination development that includes the hotels, leisure, and hospitality developments included in the outline permission.
By Anonymous
This is not good news for Liverpool, what is needed is progress on major development sites like Festival Gardens and Pall Mall, and Ion have actually delivered in the city before. Clearly there is no transparency here on the decisions that sit behind this decision, and in a time where Liverpool is having to answer some significant questions this is absolutely the wrong approach to be taking and the wrong message to send tot he industry. This will not attract investors into the city going forwards – who will want to pick up a partially remediated site that another developer has spent 4 years helping shape to be dropped without due process? Hopefully Liverpool can re-establish connections with Ion, resolve any issues that are there and bring forwards a high quality development which no doubt they can.
By Anonymous
This is disappointing to say the least. The level of economic impact of not progressing this development will be substantial and who is holding the Council to account! Think about peoples jobs, businesses and livelihoods when making these decisions. This will substantially delay the process and lead to a significant investment in the city being delayed. Unbelievable!
By Joe Bloggs
I was in the Merseyside Task Force when this land was being prepared for the garden festival – only 40 years ago – yes really ! Just saying like!
By Mike
Perfect spot for bungalows for the elderly which are desperately needed in the area
By Anonymous
Re the post at 1.21pm, bungalows are NOT desperately needed in this city, they have a place in the right location but this is not it, already over £30m has been spent re-mediating this site and for that amount a high quality, high volume development should be the outcome with a mixture of houses and mid-rise .flats.
By Anonymous
Two minutes walk from a key train station into the heart of the city, which takes 5 minutes, is NOT the location for bungalows. There are already plenty of bungalows in L17 (and the L1 estate for that matter) if people want to live in a bungalow near the city centre.
By Anonymous
Bungalows are not environmentally friendly. Due to the low number of residents. Medium density/Medium Rise is what the area and the city need. Preferably with a community heating system using heat pumps and the river as a source. Nowhere needs bungalows ever.
By JB
It wasn’t long ago that the council was getting battered for the so called dodgy deals that the former mayor and ex-officials are alleged to have made. The council seem to be saying that they need to do a proper procurement now and are inviting Ion on board so what’s all the fuss about? If they need to tidy things up let them get on with it. The main thing they need to do is make sure what gets built is high quality.
By Anonymous
Having high density thrust upon you is not what this city is about. Apartments are not welcome here.
By The TRUTH
This site is crying out for imaginative architecture and wonderful landscaping, worthy of a location that once held an International Garden Festival.
By Anonymous
As a resident of the area, ‘the TRUTH’ does not speak for me. Apartments are very much welcome here as part of a sustainable community that provides a mix of housing of various types and sizes.
By Anonymous
I thought there was a climate crisis?
By Bloomberg
Presumably objections to apartments from ‘the Truth’ are made from the comfort of their own sitting room? Spare a thought for a generation unable to buy and whose rent is 2/3 of their income.
By LEighteen
The Festival Gardens riverside site needs to have a mixture of high an low rise buildings. Solar panels and home batteries should be incorporated in the design of all homes to have them run off-grid when they can, which will ease on the electrical infrastructure.
The development will needs shops, restaurants, etc. These should be incorporated near to St.Micheal’s metro station, with a view to make the station more central to the development and the existing surrounds. Liverpool often forgets it has a metro. Other cities have stations as the centre of community.
The last thing the site needs is typical, bland, poorly made and designed “developer homes”.
By John