Liverpool Waters & Wirral Waters

Peel’s proposed redevelopment of part of Liverpool Docks and Birkenhead Docks, now branded “Liverpool Waters” and “Wirral Waters” will see a massive £10 billion investment and the regeneration of 320 hectares of redundant docks in deprived areas of Liverpool and Birkenhead.

These developments arise from Peel’s acquisition of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Company and together will have a profound impact in accelerating the economic resurgence of the Liverpool City Region during the next quarter of a century and beyond.

Development planning based on Peel’s initial visions, as launched in 2006/07, is now taking place for both Waters projects in full and open consultation with the community and with a wide range of public and private sector stakeholders, including Government, Liverpool and Wirral Councils and other local and regional bodies. Planning applications are expected to be submitted during 2008/9.

Liverpool Waters and Wirral Waters will consist of a series of linked developments that will, between them, create one of the world’s great waterfronts and major new living and working communities within Liverpool and Birkenhead. It is envisaged that the total new building floor area created will be approximately 3.6 million square metres, a mixture of commercial, retail, cultural and leisure development and over 40,000 new homes. The schemes could create around 50,000 direct full time jobs in addition to many more part time, indirect and those in construction over an estimated 30-40 year development period.

Many cities around the world have discovered that redundant docks provide a perfect catalyst for urban renewal. This is because people like to spend their time in places that overlook water. They like living by water. They like working by water. They like walking by water. They like dining by water.

It is also no coincidence that many of the world’s most successful and attractive leisure orientated destinations in the past two decades have been built beside water. Well known examples include Darling Harbour in Sydney, the Victoria and Albert Waterfront in Cape Town, Granville Island in Vancouver, and Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth.

The extent of the historic docks on both sides of the River Mersey presents Liverpool and Wirral with an opportunity that no other place in the United Kingdom, and few other cities worldwide enjoy. It is the opportunity to:

• Develop in locations overlooking water, which people find most enticing.
• Open up huge areas of dockland for leisure access for the local people for the first time ever.
• Deliver sustainable development on an unprecedented scale, enabling the use of technologies often rendered unviable on smaller-scale, more isolated projects.
• Deliver city and waterfront regeneration through a truly holistic approach, enabled through single ownership of and commitment to vital catalysts such as Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal.
• Create world class waterfront developments in the United Kingdom, each with its own distinctive qualities and appeal.
• Create large-scale generators of economic activity and new jobs at the heart of some of the most deprived communities in the UK.

Peel recognises that, if these opportunities are to have the most benefit for the City Region, they must complement rather than compete with existing city or town centres, be sensitive to the important heritage of the locality, and be successfully woven into the existing urban areas and communities.

The whole of Liverpool Docks and Birkenhead Docks are being considered by Peel for major investment and improvements, but it is largely only the redundant and under-used parts that are identified for regeneration. In some cases, for these docks to survive and prosper and have a major long term economic role, the consolidation of these dock systems must take place. Peel is therefore moving some areas that are no longer suitable for port requirements or do not maximise their economic opportunity, to other parts of the Dock estate, to allow areas to be regenerated by introducing exciting, new uses with far-reaching benefits. Peel is also investing heavily in the port in order to increase its role, alongside its regeneration proposals, as is explained in other sections of this book.

Peel considers that it is of vital importance to both its own assets and the vibrancy of the City Region that an environment is created whereby port operations work in parallel with new high quality mixed-use property development. This provides variety, animation and interest, on a scale unmatched in most UK cities.

Peel’s emerging proposals for the Liverpool and Wirral Waters schemes will not only restore the vibrancy that has been lost from these important areas and assets, they will also create new working and living communities that will integrate with existing, previously fragmented communities, providing new economic opportunities and life chances through an unprecedented scale of mixed-use intervention driven by the private sector.

Located at the western entrance to the Ocean Gateway and immediately adjoining Liverpool City Centre, the Waters schemes are of a truly international scale and profile. They provide the ideal growth space in a location where they can also help resolve some deep-rooted deprivation issues.

Liverpool and Wirral Waters will make a major contribution to all of the Ocean Gateway objectives, and help local people, groups, businesses and Government meet their own aspirations of sustainable economic growth and creating communities.