Wirral puts out call for sites
As it readies to begin the local plan process anew, the local authority is seeking suggestions for land to enable it to meet its 1,602 homes a year target.
Wirral Council is accepting submissions for potential residential and employment sites to inform its local plan. The deadline is 5pm 24 July.
This is the first step in crafting a new local plan, which must be adopted within 30 months according to national government.
Wirral Council is targeting September 2028 for having its local plan ready to submit for examination, with an eye to it being adopted in 2029.
The new plan is necessary thanks to changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. These changes included changing the local authority’s housing need calculation, which informs how much housing land supply it needs to demonstrate.
Prior to the changes, Wirral Council had a target of enabling the delivery of 728 homes a year. After the changes, that number shifted to 1,602.
You do not need to own land that you put forward for site consideration. At the conclusion of the submission period, the council will look at all the sites and conduct a strategic housing and economic land availability assessment to see if they are suitable for including in the new local plan.
Fortunately, the current Local Plan, which was only adopted last year, should provide some protection for Wirral against speculative and piecemeal development proposals until the new plan is formally adopted.
Wirral’s latest Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) shows that the borough is meeting its housing target and maintains a deliverable five-year housing land supply.
Hopefully, this will help Wirral retain the majority of its Green Belt, in contrast to what we are seeing in some neighbouring local authority areas.
By Steve Wilson
Plenty of brownfield options to help this annual quota to be met; hopefully the Council also understand new homes need new infrastructure to support this.
Greenfield sites need to be preserved, especially farm land with more done to protect and support domestic food production and reduce reliance on imports and exposure to exorbitant costs.
By T. Holmes
Will Lambert Smith Hampton be continuing to lead this via their brownfield first sell off?
By Jed Gibbons
@steve Wilson
And the massive pipeline for carrying CO2 Waste from Yorkshire to dump in the Irish sea. Cutting right through the heart of Wirral
By Harry
Roll on next May council elections when the residents have a chance to get the financially illiterate council out.
By MFH
The council thwarted all attempts to develop my land and property at 1Grosvenor road Prenton repeatedly between 2016 and 2022 !
Personnel changes over the years meant that outline agreements were rejected when new planners arrived – they wasted a lot of my time, money and effort!!!
By Steve Morris
This should be fun! And just wait until the council becomes a five-way split, with Reform taking seats next year.
By More Anonymous than the Others
Open land between Cortsway and Wood Lane Greasby. In 16 years never seen anyone use it
By Anonymous
I wouldnt trust Witral.Council to take care of a snail. They have already wasted, who knows how many millions, unused office buildings, ridiculous changes to the town centre, which have gone down like a lead balloon. I have zero faith in our Council, the only thing they are good at doing, is wasting money. They have almost completely destroyed Birkenhead Town Centre. We also need a lot more social housing, than what they are planning to build
By Karen
Do not build on green field, and make sure quotes are fixed, no overspend for residents to have to pay for.
By Jim Miller
Why not plan to build a number of these houses at appropriate sites along the proposed CO2 pipeline.
By John Martin
What happened to all the homes Peel Holdings were supposed to build.
By Anonymous