Wirral pushes to commit £35m Birkenhead spend

Procurement will be advanced for two lots of highways, public realm and active travel works as the council looks to put to work support from a swathe of programmes including the Levelling Up Fund.

Government backing has been promised for both the Birkenhead Waterfront regeneration programme and for the Central Birkenhead (town centre) programmes, but the process needs to be pushed along to ensure the funding remains available.

Wirral Council’s economy, regeneration and housing committee last night rubber-stamped the request from officers to trigger the procurement process.

Three contractors are in play for the work, according to the report for the committee – full details being restricted.

This will allow the council to proceed directly with the appointment of two separate Tier One contractors for the projects, through the Procure Partnerships framework and the Pagabo framework for the projects.

A previous procurement exercise was started a year ago, which looked to appoint one contractor for the whole suite of projects, but the council could not find a satisfactory outcome.

The first award will be to develop the design and undertake the construction works in relation to the highways, public realm and active travel schemes across the Birkenhead Waterfront Programme and the second award to immediately start the construction works in Birkenhead town centre in relation to the Conway Street/Europa Boulevard movement programme.

Wirral’s twin  projects have secured chunks of funding from a range of funding streams, with the Levelling Up Fund, Future High Streets Fund, Active Travel Tranche 3 and Town Deal all coming in to play.

Each of these programmes are time limited, a pressure exacerbated by continuing cost inflation in construction, officers said.

Birkenhead town centre: £11.9m

Conway Street/Europa Boulevard/Claughton Road: new cycle lanes and walking routes are part of the programme. For this programme, which includes fully replacing the paving on Conway Street, and creating a segregated cycleway on Europa Boulevard while reducing the dual carriageway, £3.9m has been secured from the Future High Streets Fund, £3.8m from two Active Travel allocations, £1.2m from private sector contributions.

For the Grange Road project, close to £3m has been secured, covering alterations to the road network.

The town centre active travel work was greenlit at the council’s environment, climate emergency, and transport committee meeting held in July 2023. Both were developed with the assistance of Mott MacDonald, who worked with Planit-IE on the Charing Cross and Grange Road schemes and BCA Landscape on the Europa Boulevard and Conway Street projects.

Birkenhead Waterfront: £22.7m

The Liverpool City Region’s Levelling Up Fund allocation will be used, meaning £9.7m for the Argyle Street improvement programme.

For Woodside, Wirral’s own LUF allocation will stump up £8.8m, with a further £1.1m from the council’s reserves.

Hamilton Square and the related station plaza scheme will receive slightly more than £3m from the Town Deal programme.

In a 2023 consultation process, Wirral Council said the aim of the waterfront programme is to “improve the connection for pedestrians coming out of Hamilton Square station, and to make this area more of a destination by creating space for a riverside park and mew landscaping to frame views of the River Mersey”.