Developer Peel L&P submits plans to create 4.7-acre Central Park at Liverpool Waters on Liverpool waterfront. Tony McDonough reports
Peel L&P has submitted plans to create a new public park at Liverpool Waters across 4.7 acres and contains more than 1,000 trees.
Central Park will be one of a number of green spaces created at the £5bn development in the city’s northern docklands. Peel L&P says this latest application to Liverpool City Council will enable the delivery of further residential and commercial developments.
Liverpool Waters was first unveiled more than a decade ago. It was put forward as a 30-year scheme. However, Peel has come in for criticism from those who believe the reality so far has not matched the original vision.
Most of the development so far has been residential. Two for-rent high-rise schemes have recently been completed at Princes Dock. Romal Capital has already delivered two schemes in Central Docks and has just won a planning appeal on a £100m scheme to build 330 apartments, despite local opposition.
Work is already well under way on Everton’s £500m stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. That is due for completion in mid to late 2024. Work is also well advanced on the new Isle of Man ferry terminal which is due to open in mid-2023. A final decision on a £50m cruise line terminal has yet to be made.
Central Docks will be the largest of the five planned neighbourhoods at Liverpool Waters. These latest plans include new street infrastructure, green spaces, the development of Central Park, and public realm areas north of Jesse Hartley Way.
They will also significantly improve connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists from the city centre and Princes Dock through to Bramley Moore Dock and the city’s northern docks.
Central Park will “celebrate the site’s post-industrial heritage and its coastal locality”. Proposals also include coastal woodland planting, wetland planting, community gardens and open parkland.
Shelters and canopies, areas for sport, recreation and fitness, and spaces designed to support local wildlife have also been included in the plans.
Public realm and street infrastructure in the surrounding Central Dock neighbourhood will include a series of green streets and rain gardens. There will be footpaths and a variety of street types to support vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.
As part of the Mersey Forest, tree cover will be increased by around 10% across the Central Dock neighbourhood and up to 30% along key road and rail corridors, linking the city’s green spaces together.
Chris Capes, Peel L&P’s development director for Liverpool Waters, said: “This is a very exciting moment for Liverpool Waters as the submission of this planning application is critical to the development of Central Docks.
“These proposals are significant for Liverpool and the North West, and will enable development of the whole neighbourhood over the next 10 years. At the same time, we are setting a quality benchmark for all new public realm in later phases of Liverpool Waters.
“In this planning application, which incorporates the feedback we have received from the local community and key stakeholders in our recent consultation and engagement exercise, we have set out how we plan to bring the Central Docks neighbourhood to life.”