Reds’ highway shutdown bid set for replay

Liverpool FC’s plan to permanently close part of Anfield Road to vehicles is again recommended for approval, with the city council also due to vote on a number of residential proposals.

The Anfield Road affair

In redeveloping and expanding the Anfield Road stand, LFC effectively created a plaza-style shared space where the road once ran, securing a temporary closure that it now wants to make permanent. The request was rolled in with a separate proposal regarding the volume of summer events at Anfield.

The plans were heard at committee at the end of June with approval recommended, chief among the reasoning of officers the greater event security provided by closure.

However, ward councillors had objected prior to the session, and spoke stridently on the day. Committee chair Cllr Tom Cardwell spoke of the “serious work” the club faces in addressing a “breakdown of trust” with its community.

A site visit will be held ahead of committee, which will consider enhanced efforts by the club to secure permission.

Officers added that following the 30 June meeting, further information on safety and security has been provided and considered, “further support the case for the vehicle route remaining closed from a highway safety and ground safety perspective”.

• In case you missed it: read about LFC’s June deferment here

The council’s own building control department has weighed in with information from the Anfield ground safety certificate process, while LFC has also submitted a document outlining its case.

In this, it talks of terrorist threats including the use of vehicles as weapons – citing an incident at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2021 and the incident at Water Street during Liverpool’s victory parade last May.

It also cites Martyn’s Law around enhanced venue security, the legislation introduced following the Manchester Arena bombing, pointing out that Anfield is classed in the top tier due to its volume of visitors. The high level of first-time visitors is also used to argue the point that vehicles would threaten pedestrian safety in what is now an unusual road layout.

Further mitigation measures already offered centred on a review of traffic regulation orders and physical works to improve the crossing facilities at Arkles Road/Arkles Lane.

The application can be viewed on the Liverpool City Council planning portal, reference 24F/ 2963.

Also at committee…

Three other projects of significant scale will be in the spotlight, each with a recommendation to approve.

McGoff Group Projects and McGoff’s Dunham Care seek a green light (reference 24F/2084) for a 65-bed residential care nursing home, on land to the rear of the Childwall Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, off Dunbabin Road.

Working with Garner Planning and Street Design Partnership, the project is part two- and part three-storey, with 27 parking spaces. Due to falling numbers, the synagogue will be demolished and replaced by a smaller building on the front portion of the site.

Affordable housing provider Sanctuary (reference 25F/2747) is looking to redevelop the former Greenheys Lodge care home site off Sefton Park Road in a part four- and part-five storey project, comprising 36 apartments.

Twenty five one-bed flats and 11 two-bed flats are inked in for the scheme, which will be 100% social rent.

The 1996-built care home has been disused for four years.

Officers summed up that the scheme “facilitates the reuse of a vacant and underutilised brownfield site within a sustainable urban location” adding that “the development would create a high-quality residential environment, incorporating private amenity space, communal gardens and accessible design features”.

Euan Kellie Property Solutions is the planning consultant and Brock Carmichael the architect.

In Anfield, local firm PSD Group (reference 25F/2188) has proposed a four-storey block and two three-storey blocks, offering a combined total of 48 apartments.

The Back Belmont Road site sits within the Belmont Road mixed-use area in planning terms, making residential compatible with surrounding uses.

Sitting alongside the Whitefield Road recreation ground, the site is mostly cleared, with a former dairy building occupying a small part of it.

Revival Architecture and Baltic PDC are advising.

Officers said: “Whilst the proposal would result in the loss of vacant commercial buildings, the site is not designated as safeguarded employment land and no active businesses would be displaced.

“Significant weight is afforded to the benefits of bringing a vacant and underutilised brownfield site back into productive use and delivering 48 new homes, including affordable housing provision, within an established urban area.”

The site overlooks a park off Whitefield Road. Credit: planning documents