Plans in for Merseyside Police HQ

Ryder Architecture and contractor Willmott Dixon have submitted a planning application for Liverpool’s 137,000 sq ft Merseyside Police Headquarters on Scotland Road.

The development will provide space for up to 1,175 staff across a main four-storey building and a single-storey annex, alongside meeting rooms, a lecture theatre and break-out spaces.

A multi-storey car park was originally cited to be built at the site alongside the police headquarters, but this has been scrapped in favour of surface car parking.

Willmott Dixon was selected as main contractor for the building on a design-and-build basis in September 2016 through Scape’s major works framework, and subject to planning approval, could start on the project in the first half of 2018 ahead of a 2020 opening.

The eight-acre site, which borders Scotland Road, St Anne Street, and the approach road to the Kingsway Tunnel, was picked from a shortlist of five, which also included Pall Mall, Liverpool Waters, Wirral River Streets, and Knowsley Community College.

The site was largely owned by the Council, which approved a compulsory purchase order in March last year to buy up parcels of the site to allow the development to go ahead.

The project will see Merseyside Police relocate from its current Canning Place HQ, built in the 1970s, and the Police said the move would cost £780,000 cheaper than refurbishing the existing building, and would save the force £380,000 a year in running costs.

The Canning Place site will be sold once the police relocates to its new headquarters.

Pre-application meetings were held with Liverpool City Council in October and November last year.

If plans are approved, the project could start on site in the first half of 2018