Wirral Waters on shortlist for road grants

Peel's Wirral Waters has been shortlisted to be among the first winners of support from the £474m Local Infrastructure Fund established by George Osborne in autumn 2012 to accelerate large housing schemes of over 1,500 units.

Fourteen schemes around the country were shortlisted by the Homes & Communities Agency and bidders are now invited to take part in a due diligence process before entering into contract.

The North Bank East residential element of the giant Wirral Waters scheme was the only shortlisted development in the North West.

The fund is aimed at helping to cover the costs of upfront infrastructure investment and other site preparation works.

Richard Mawdsley, projects director at Peel, said: "After formally securing the planning permission for Wirral Waters in May 2012, we are focussing our attention in two main areas of the Docks: West Float, where we have just finished a major remediation project which was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and designed for advanced manufacturing; and Tower Road, a Wirral Waters neighbourhood area for education, culture, managed workspace and residential uses. The LIF infrastructure will assist in the delivery in this part of Wirral Waters. The different neighbourhood areas are then knitted together by the ongoing tree planting, supported by the Forestry Commission, Mersey Forest and the Department for Business Innovation & Skill, and the Wirral Streetcar project, the first phase of which we hope could be delivered relatively quickly."