Step Places edges approval for 98 Alder Hey homes

Liverpool City Council’s planning committee voted five to four in favour of the developer’s plans to build on land previously owned by the hospital.

Step Places’ scheme proposes proposed a total of 98 homes: 59 retirement apartments to be managed by McCarthy Stone, eight apartments for people with autism, and 31 townhouses.

The development, known as Springfield Gardens, will be built off Alder Road in Knotty Ash, Liverpool.

Liverpool approved the scheme despite a raft of objections, including Ronald McDonald House. The charity was concerned about the proximity of the proposed development to its building and the possibility of some of the charity’s rooms being overlooked.

The project team includes Gerald Eve, BDP, E3P, Redmore Environmental, LK Group, QED, Civic, Hydrock, RJD Associates Box Architects and Aca.

To view the application, search for reference number 23F/1905 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.

Three years ago, Step Places secured permission for nine development plots at the former Alder Hey Children’s Hospital site, but plots one and two were sold back to the NHS Trust.

Under plans lodged by Step Places in 2020 and approved by Liverpool City Council the following year, plots one and two of the former Alder Hey Hospital site in Knotty Ash have planning permission for apartments and a 52,000 sq ft NHS Trust office building.

The apartments would have been delivered across a quartet of three-to-five-storey blocks comprising 168 properties in total with around 10,000 sq ft of commercial space on the ground floor.