“Our vision for this century, to create a new living and working environment at Birkenhead Docks with beautiful high rise and high quality buildings connected by tastefully designed landscaped public areas, starts today with the submission of the first major planning application of Wirral Waters at Northbank East.

When I first visited Birkenhead Docks a couple of years ago and stood next to the Hydraulic Tower on Tower Road and looked over East Float, my immediate impression was - what a magnificent asset for Birkenhead and what a fantastic piece of real estate. Much of the land was uninviting, untidy and under-used yet the potential for a new lease of life was obvious. In a strange way it seemed quite sad that something that has given so much to Wirral and its people for over a century lay there without the importance, prestige and activity that it so rightly had earned and deserved. This forgotten soul was clearly begging to be reborn again, but into something wonderful, something innovative and befitting that would actually contribute positively towards the prosperity and wellbeing of the area and to the people that live here.

The scale of these docks cannot be properly appreciated unless you actually walk around its boundaries but the waters edge is currently inaccessible to the public. That must change.

This regeneration and redevelopment opportunity is unique in the United Kingdom, I certainly can't think of any other Dock Estate that offers anything like this. It is such a big asset for this part of Wirral and it could do so much more, hence the scale of our Wirral Waters proposals.

To add to this, Peel owns its sister docks at Liverpool, the historic waterfront on the other side of the River Mersey to the north of the beautiful “Three Graces,” again an equally magnificent piece of real estate but with different attributes and challenges.

Birkenhead Docks and Liverpool Docks have always had a relationship, sometimes quite a tense one but nevertheless it existed. To retain this relationship and synergy we considered it important to in some way continue to link them both together, and to start this we gave them new names. Thus, the names “Wirral Waters” and “Liverpool Waters” were borne to give parts of these under-used dock systems a new life, a different life, an exciting life with the prospects of a better future for the needs of this 21st century. These docks will work together again to bring in new business, different type of business, international business that will bring a whole range of new jobs for local people of all ages and all genders.

Of course this does not mean that the docks are closing down, far from it. We are to consolidate and improve the port operational activities and to increase, not decrease, port activity. We want the ports to compete better with the ports in the South East so they can regain their position in the world market and indeed to keep pace with today's methods of transporting goods. The Ocean Gateway, launched last year, is part of that process.

Bigger ships and containerisation have changed the ways that we operate our docks and we certainly cannot afford here in the northwest to get left behind.

Public consultation is a very important part of how we go about our business at Peel. Of course not every project that we announce finds favour with the public as not all proposals are as grand and all encompassing as what we are proposing at Birkenhead Docks.

One of my early public presentations to the local Wirral public was at the Lauries Centre in Birkenhead and is positively etched on my memory was a dark Friday winters evening yet hundreds of people turned up, in fact so many that the manager had to lock the front doors and turn people away.

I was scared to death to have to give a presentation to such a large and obviously passionate audience!
Never have I seen so many people so interested in what was to be proposed for their area. I knew at that point that this project was all about the public; The people could help make Wirral Waters happen and shape it but on the proviso that they and future generations benefitted from the opportunities.
I managed to deliver what was a heart felt speech detailing Peel's proposals to this very intensely interested group of locals that was followed by a questions and answers session.
The general outcome was – “when can you start on site” which was what we needed to motivate us to carry on and fund what has been a very intensive and expensive process.

Local public support has been vital to help progress a scheme as huge and as far reaching as Wirral Waters. Generally, for every one objector to a planning application we probably get thousands of supporters but supporters tend to be silent which is not helpful at all.
This, thankfully, has not been the case at Wirral as we already have hundreds of local people that have pledged support, many in writing, all of which have been copied to the Council officers and its Members.

I have to say Wirral Council have been very helpful and professional about the way they have dealt with us to progress this scheme. We have of course had lots of frank discussions and debates, but we are making positive progress.

The planning system is mainly about legislation that tells you what you can't do rather that what you can do. It has increasingly become a very complicated and political process.

The town planning policies set for Wirral never envisaged of course a holistic scheme the likes of Wirral Waters coming along so the tools they had to work with were not helpful.
It's been a challenge to change these policies but this has been necessary so that our planning applications are considered against a background of a set of rules that accommodates a large regeneration scheme.
As they say “where there is a will, there is a way” and we think one has been found with the helpful guidance of the Council, our Government Office and the North West Regional Development Agency working as a partnership between the public and private sector.

So, after about 2 years of very hard work undertaking studies, carrying out detailed analysis, preparing reports and drawings and by working closely with the Council and the Government agencies we have now been able to submit the first of many planning applications under the Wirral Waters 'masterplan' umbrella that proposes the first new buildings in what is the biggest regeneration project in the country.

It's a milestone in the life of Wirral Waters. It's the start of a very long journey that will take many decades to complete. It's the start of a new and prosperous era for what is currently an area with real problems. We are very proud to be a part of this process.

Of course we are in a recession and the type of world we will emerge into after the recession is very difficult to predict. We know sustainability will be key and we have to change the ways communities operate. What we want to do is to ensure that when we emerge, we have the building blocks in place so we can deliver.

In the meantime, it is going to be very hard to keep the momentum going. Many projects around the country are being shelved, maybe never to be resurrected. We don't want that to happen to Wirral Waters.

Obtaining a planning permission on the scale of WW's is an extremely costly exercise with no guarantee that we will get there but the more support we can engender from the public, the more likely it will be to succeed, that's why the publics comments are vital to us...positive or negative.

Having said this it will be the 4th recession that I have had to suffer but one thing is for sure, they don't last forever. This year will be difficult and no doubt the recession will creep into 2010 but we all need to work hard to be ready for when it ends so that we get a head start on others.

Let's not make this recession any longer than it needs to be.

We will arrange another display and public consultation session in the near future hopefully back at the Birkenhead Market Hall so that everybody can have their say once again and myself and the team will be there to answer questions.

I really appreciate the support we have had so far from everybody and if this continues, I'm sure we will succeed to materialise this magnificent vision to the benefit of all”