Liverpool City council to begin month-long consultation on Thursday, October 6, on eight projects including a plan to reduce the Strand from eight lanes to four. Tony McDonough reports.
A £45m plan to transform Liverpool’s city centre transport network – including reducing the Strand from eight lanes to four – goes out to public consultation this week.
The city council will begin the month-long consultation on Thursday, October 6. If it goes ahead the scheme will change how people move around the city centre by foot, bike, car, coach and bus.
An online survey to gain feedback has been created by the council who will also be hosting a four day public roadshow from Tuesday, October 11.
Eight projects
To be completed before the end of 2019, the proposed eight LCCC projects are
1. St George’s Plateau – New Event Space: To be created by reclaiming northbound lanes of Lime Street increasing current event capacity.
2. The Strand: New four lane highway, new north-south cycleway, enhanced animation of public space and road enhancements to improve pedestrian links from waterfront to the Commercial District and main retail area.
3. New City Bus Hub: To be established near Queen Square bus station accompanied by a new bus routing strategy that will cut congestion and pollution.
4. New City Coach Park (location TBC): New off-street layover facility and rest area for drivers and reduce congestion in the city centre.
5. New Canning Dock Bridges: Four new bridges will be created to link Salthouse Quay (opposite Albert Dock) with Mann Island opening up land for future development.
6. New Moorfields entrance: Upgrade to the public realm on Moorfields to enhance the quality of arrival in the Commercial District from the station.
7. Brownlow Hill: Upgraded public realm and new cycle links from Lime Street station to the Knowledge Quarter, which is undergoing a £1bn renaissance.
8. Victoria Street/ Tithebarn Street: Will see public realm upgrades plus introduction of new two-way cycleway from Lime Street station to the waterfront via Hatton Garden and Tithebarn Street.
The survey will go live Thursday and be available until midnight on Sunday, November 6, and can be found at www.liverpool.gov.uk/lccconnectivity
Business feedback
Businesses are also encouraged to provide feedback and Liverpool BID Company will be holding a Business Breakfast Briefing on Thursday, October 6, at 9am in Aloft Liverpool, and a further presentation to businesses will be held at special seminar of the travel and transport forum on Monday, October 10, in Liverpool & Sefton Chamber of Commerce, on Old Hall Street, from 12-2pm.
Reducing congestion
The Liverpool City Centre Connectivity Scheme (LCCC) has been designed to achieve a major reduction in congestion by creating a new hub for buses to park and layover in, which will reduce bus traffic, and the repositioning of Queen Square bus station for all northbound routes and Paradise Street station for all southbound routes.
Liverpool’s first dedicated coach park is also planned to accommodate the boom in coach visitors to the city centre, which last year equated to 160,000 more tourists than those who arrived via the cruise terminal.
‘Welcome upgrade’
Councillor Malcolm Kennedy, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, said: “Our city centre welcome needs a major upgrade to the standard befitting a world class city.
‘’With a growing residential population, a huge rise in visitors and £10bn of major developments in the pipeline, how we navigate around it needs a radical rethink in key locations and some major improvements.
“Each of these projects will open up a new world of possibilities to further accelerate the future growth of Liverpool and the wider city region.
“This scheme will make a huge difference to how everyone will moves around the city centre which is why we want to hear as many views as possible, be they pedestrians, cyclists or motorists.’’
The LCCC scheme is receiving £38.4m from the Local Growth Fund with local match funding of £6.3m.