Prime Minister visits Peel’s Wirral Waters site

Prime Minister David Cameron was given a tour of the site for Peel's proposed £4.5bn Wirral Waters scheme on Thursday.

He was joined by Lord Heseltine, Cllr Jeff Green, leader of Wirral Council, and members of the City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, including Sir Terry Leahy, Jack Stopforth, Rod Holmes and Asif Hamid.

Prior to the tour, the Prime Minister was given a presentation on Wirral Waters and further regeneration plans for Merseyside.

The £4.5bn Wirral Waters project was given planning approval by Wirral Council in August last year and proposes 18m sq ft of mixed-use development in the East Float area of Wallasey and Birkenhead Docks.

Peter Nears, strategic planning director for Peel, said: "We were also able to highlight the potential of the SuperPort developments, including Peel's own plans for Port expansion on Merseyside as well as along the Ship Canal within the wider context of Atlantic Gateway."

In November 2010, Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for the Department of Communities and Local Government, decided not to call the application in for a public inquiry, following the decision of the council to grant planning approval.

Richard Mawdsley, development manager at Peel, added: "After four years of planning work we are now preparing to move into the 'marketing phase' of the project. Big, catalytic occupiers – whether cultural, educational or commercial – will now start to get interested with this consent in place. It is a very exciting time for us, also considering the strong interest we have already seen by several potential Chinese investors."

Peel also proposes to regenerate over 148 acres of derelict dockland in north Liverpool, to be known as Liverpool Waters. A planning application was submitted last October and a decision by the local authority is expected later on in the year.