Liverpool unveils masterplan for 100 acres in city centre
Proposing the construction of more than 7,000 homes, the Pumpfields and Limekilns supplementary planning document will guide the residential-led regeneration of a swathe of brownfield land.
Liverpool City Council’s cabinet is expected to approve the draft SPD next week, triggering a period of public consultation.
The SPD has been drafted by a consultant team led by architect Levitt Bernstein alongside Montagu Evans, Arup, and Turner Works.
The document maps out how development could come forward within the Pumpfields and Limeklins area, which incorporates circa 100 acres bounded by Great Howard Street, Leeds Street, Scotland Road, and Chisenhale Street. Love Lane as far north as the junction with Sherwood Street is also included in the SPD’s scope.
The Pumpfields SPD identifies land for development, sets design guidelines, outlines how existing buildings could be reused, and puts forward ideas for improvements to infrastructure.
The key aim for the SPD is to facilitate a greater density of residential development in the area, mainly through the delivery of apartments, which make up close to 98% of the proposed housing mix.
As well as apartments – alongside a handful of maisonettes and townhouses – a key feature of the proposals is a linear park spanning around six acres above the Kingsway Tunnel.
Buildings developed within the SPD zone could rise up to 28 storeys. The area earmarked for the tallest developments, on the corner of Great Howard Street and Leeds Street, is currently home to a car showroom.
The land currently occupied by Elliot Group’s stalled Infinity scheme is earmarked in the SPD for buildings up to 18 storeys. The consented scheme reached 38 storeys at its highest point.
Around 584,000 sq ft of employment uses are planned within the SPD zone, mainly on the ground floors of residential buildings. Canal Square, a new public space off Pall Mall that would celebrate heritage buildings, is an eye-catching feature of the plans.
The area forms part of the accelerated development zone identified by the Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel, chaired by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram.
Reflecting on the SPD, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for growth and economy Nick Small said: “We hope that this masterplan will help deliver a sustainable, inclusive, residential-led mixed use new neighbourhood that will see the delivery of over 7,000 new homes with active travel infrastructure, health and leisure facilities and enhanced public realm and green space to support this across six distinctive character areas.”
Several residential projects are already progressing in Pumpfields. These include plans from Brack Construction for 85 apartments off Blackstock Street, Jarron Investments’ 400-home Metalworks, Seth Real Estate and PIRES Capital’s 500-unit co-living development, Legacie’s 650-home The Gateway, and Rosmara’s 160-flat Vauxhall Road scheme.
Canal Square is a proposed new public space. Credit: via the SPD
Not before time, these areas have been partly derelict for decades and look like a war zone. The image looks modern and European, and mixed with good-looking terraces and town houses should provide attractive places to live. Scotland Rd especially still has the remnants of a neighbourhood and once all those eyesore bombsites are built upon can be a buzzing locality again.
By Anonymous
why limit to 28 and 18 storeys? this should be the expansion of the city centre, this area is perfect for midrise blocks with tree lined streets and squares with a number of towers. If a developer wants to go to 50 storeys, why put the brakes on? LCC has housing targets, local businesses need more footfall and people want to live closer to work and enjoy city life.
By GetItBuilt!
Can the Ormskirk/Aughton speculative developers be forced to develop here instead of destroying grade 1 agricultural land.
By Frank
This is further positive news except for the planned development of the stalled Elliot Infinity development.
This has planning consent for three buildings the tallest being 38 storeys so why now restrict any future development to 18 storeys.
This is surely a backward step especially as we have the King Edwards tall buildings project close by.
By David
Concrete jungle
By Anonymous
It would be great to see this whole area developed but yet again we see height restrictions. WHY???? Like many people I’ve always had hopes that the Infinity towers would commence at some stage. It was a stunning looking development. Not sure if I’m reading it properly that the site would now be restricted to 28 storeys unless a new developer can be found to take it on. Just doesn’t make any sense and brings further suspicion around the reasons why it stalled. Almost feels like sabotage. Regarding the rest of the development it would be nice to see mix of building heights. I’d imagine most would be in the range of 8 to 12 storeys which would be great but it would be nice to see a few towers around the 20 storey mark. One of the most important things here is what happens at ground level. Massively important to have a good mix of shops, restaurants, cafes, bakery, chemist etc and a few pubs would be nice. Liverpool really needs to be more ambitious with these type of things and certain decision makers need to be removed from the Planning department.
By Anonymous
This is not ‘Pumpfields’, or any other such daft nomenclature. it is Vauxhall. Please stop indulging the council in such nonsense, @PlaceNW.
By Anonymous
LCC seem to roll out an annual master plan………….rather than coming up with theoretical ideas, why don’t they do something constructive and get planning applications through faster.
They have little clue what they are doing, and their plans seem to fall flat on their face every time……just look at the Garden Festival site…….gets pushed back more than court cases!
By Tax Payer
Two steps forward and one step back…….again! Why the change in policy about the Infinity site from 38 to 18 storeys? If the Infinity site was being worked on now would LCC stop the developers going beyond 18 storeys or would they let them carry on with it? On the one hand we hear the great news about the Davos/Beetham development and we think we are moving forwards at last and then we get the news about the Infinity site that signifies that we as a city are going backwards again. It would be just great to see the KEIE site expanded to include the Infinity site too!
By Brendan R
Can Place ask the council for the rationale for the hieght reduction on infinity…..I suspect that means it will be even less viable?
By George
The historical site of Liverpool Goal should be particularly preserved in Great Howard Street.
Also the Liverpool City Council wheeltappers, chimney sweep and bottle washers should endeavour to commit the
” usual waste of Council Tax on cycle lanes”.
The cycle lanes could be inter-connected with Vale Road in Woolton Village.
By Anonymous
Maybe a Freedom of Information Request to the Council could find out who is it, or was it, on the council who somehow decreed that we should not build high in this city, as it seems to be set in a tablet of stone. You get the impression that when any planning application is submitted here the first thought is how many storeys. We know there are councillors who appear to dislike private developments, and get the impression some of the officers do as well.
By Anonymous
The proposed heights are about right for what will be a residential area but the development area should be expanded to include the Costco/Home Bargain site and allow that to be an extension of the King Edward triangle site. The biggest issue is there’s no mention of public transport. 7000 homes will mean 10,000-20,000 people. Three needs to be a new Merseyrail station built to support this
By Gary
As the Elliot scheme is partly constructed, does that not mean that the consent is activated for the whole scheme? And therefore that the original tower heights should prevail? Can someone please explain.
By Vauxhall Victor
First of all, a good well thought out plan. As for the ridiculous councillors voting against, their names are already out there so need for freedom of information etc etc. Without naming them, they were not labour councillors. As for infinity, nobody has reduced the height, the plans are for what will replace it if it doesn’t go ahead which it unfotubatelyn doesn’t look like it will.
By Anonymous
28 Storeys
Wow. I’m dizzy Miss Lizzy.
More ground scrapers with cycle sheds
By Sid
Why stop at 18 28 or 50 storeys anyway? The London Shard has 95 floors with magnificent views of the city from the viewing platform or the Sky Gardens, so we should go for at least 100. Might blot out the sun though and cause a blackout over the Wirral.
By Tom
It’s Vauxhall not Pumpfields !
By Local
@Frank – what has development in Aughton/Ormskirk got to do with Liverpool ?
By Local
Why designate it a residential area, rather than a commercial growth zone? The city council are forcibly preventing “agglomeration” from occurring in the commercial district by hemming it in. Consider how spinningfields now spreads into Salford.
Clearly Militant 2.0 don’t feel we should have jobs too.
By John
Progress. 2 of the four consultants have a base in Liverpool. Are LCC finally starting to get the message. The more the merrier but will take what we can get.
By Jonty McBride
Apartments are only nice places to live if they are big enough (a lot bigger than the old council flats we just got rid of) and if the buildings are managed and maintained well and we have seen plenty that are not. Liverpool has recently spent a fortune getting rid of inadequate tower blocks and I’m wondering if the private sector is just creating slums in the air fot the future.
By Stephen W Heathfield
Go for it
By Phill
@ Stephen 2.03pm, slums also can be created by the people who live in them, as you give someone a new house or apartment and it gets wrecked. Also some of the fine tenements at say Fontenoy Gardens, Gérard Gardens, Myrtle Gardens etc were demolished or emptied for no logical reason. Just look at Myrtle Gardens now, or the Bull Ring, still being used by people who respect their homes, and managed properly.
By Anonymous
Can you add a link to the doc in the article – be interested to read it, but can’t find it!
By Anonymous
Hi Anonymous – I’ve added the link to the story, but for ease – you can find the draft SPD at https://councillors.liverpool.gov.uk/documents/s320952/Appendix%201%20Draft%20Pumpfields%20SPD%20Low%20res.pdf
By Julia Hatmaker
While it seems a decent plan, I can’t believe yhe hight limits, and there seems to be very little mention of any real transport links, they can’t be expecting everyone to walk a couple miles into the city, and how theres no mention of vauxal station is baffling
By Anonymous
Infinity can move forward. Just LCC preventing it and their lack of transparency until the rabbit is pulled out of the Hat, as a done deal…’deal’ being the operative word. So who is building this 18 storey Development?
By Jane