PLANNING | Liverpool rejects Crosslane and Romal applications
Liverpool City Council followed planning officer recommendations in refusing the 236-apartment, co-living project in the Baltic Triangle and the 330-home scheme at Liverpool Waters.
Only one large scheme was approved at the council’s planning committee meeting on 18 January – an application for 135 apartments off Waterloo Road. The project had been approved in February last year, but went before committee again after changing its housing mix, reducing the number of three-bed units from ten to five and the number of two-bed apartments from 65 to 63. The number of one-bed apartments increased from 38 to 45. Councillors voted unanimously to approve the changes.
The refused schemes
Romal Capital’s £100m Liverpool Waters project was rejected due to the harm the council believed it would cause to heritage assets, the impact it would cause Cultural Square, and because it had too many one-bedroom apartments.
The project was for 330 homes, consisting of 194 one-bedroom apartments, 124 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom ones. It was designed by Ollier Smurthwaite Architects.
Romal Capital has already appealed and the matter will be decided by an independent inquiry.
Crosslane wanted to turn the site into a co-living devleopment. Credit: Google Earth
Crosslane Co-Living Group’s redevelopment for the former Bogans Carpet site on New Bird Street in the Baltic Triangle was scaled back twice before, with the original plan calling for 370 co-living apartments across 11 storeys. It was then reduced to 326 before the current application, which petitioned for 236 units.
Wates was lined up as main contractor for the project, which had been designed by Sadler Brown Group.
Councillors rejected the application saying that the number of single occupancy units was too high and that 192 of the apartments did not comply with nationally described space standards.
Read more about the Liverpool co-living situation in The Subplot.
