Last night Wirral Council approved Peel’s Northbank East proposal that will see some £200m investment and create around 1,000 jobs, in construction and proposed office and retail uses.

Northbank East will see the creation of a new community based neighbourhood with a new approach to waterfront living and working. The project connects the converted Grain Warehouses on Dock Road to the Hydraulic Tower on Tower Road. The proposals will see an additional residential community, attracting residents to a wider choice of homes, together with local shops and places to work all within walking distance.

The Northbank East proposals are part of Peel’s wider masterplan for the East Float area, a major component of the Wirral Waters scheme, which will see one of the largest planning applications in the UK submitted later this year, comparable only with nationally important projects such as Greenwich Peninsula and the Olympics and its Legacy.

Wirral Waters is part of Peel’s “Ocean Gateway” concept that will see an investment by Peel of over £50 billion in the Liverpool to Manchester corridor, including Liverpool Waters which will mirror Wirral Waters across the Mersey, together with proposals for the Liverpool SuperPort which includes both the Port of Liverpool and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Two planning applications to redevelop surplus dockland at the Northbank East site, within the East Float of Birkenhead Docks, went before Wirral Council’s Planning Committee last night and received a unanimous positive vote.

The first, a detailed planning application comprises a 20 storey tower which rises from the north east corner of the development.. This scheme will include 141 homes to attract a wide range of people including families, older people and young people. The homes will be a mix of 1-4 bedroom units, including a number of larger 2 storey (duplex) homes and live-work units, as well as a small supermarket to serve residents, a private communal rooftop garden and shared amenity space. Access to the dock edge will be opened up through new public realm and landscaping improving access to the waters edge.

The second application may need to be also considered by Government Office North West owing to the amount of office and retail space being proposed. The Secretary of State will decide whether the application needs to be “called-in” for determination by central Government. This application would see the development of four towers, reaching up to 40 storeys providing 1,531 new homes, commercial office space and retail and leisure facilities as well as an area of waterside public realm.

Lindsey Ashworth, Development Director at Peel said:
“Northbank East and East Float will form the basis for the long term housing and economic growth of the area and create nearly 30,000 new jobs and attract a similar number of residents, through a genuinely mixed-use approach. This will all be set in a sustainable environment that will use its critical mass as well as Peel’s capabilities in energy, waste and water to be one of the most exciting and important regeneration project in the UK.

These two planning permissions are the start of what will be the long awaited regeneration of underused docks but in a spectacular way.”