Egerton Village will be located at Four Bridges and will comprise a restaurant and bistro, retail units, artists’ studios, managed workspace and a public events space. Tony McDonough reports
Planners have given the green light to a £4m waterside village containing retails and arts space at Wirral Waters.
Egerton Village will be located at Four Bridges, adjacent to Wirral Metropolitan College construction faculty, the proposed new £7.5m No 1 Tower Road South office block at Tower Road, and the proposed Maritime Knowledge Hub at the hydraulic tower building.
The project cluster is close to the residential developments emerging along the Northbank element of Wirral Waters and will provide local amenities and facilities for the business and residential communities as well as an arts hub and events space.
Peel L&P submitted the planning application to Wirral Council last year and, under delegated powers, the council’s planning department has now given the scheme the go ahead. Eden Planning acted for Peel L&P in securing consent for this project.
With views across the Mersey to Liverpool, Egerton Village will be a creative and community hub for visitors, students, businesses and residents. It will comprise of a dockside restaurant and bistro, small independent retail units, artists’ studios, managed workspace and even a large public events space.
The scheme has been designed by OMI Architects, following an architectural competition. Its design is a response to the Wirral being a series of villages, the site’s quayside location on the docks and its views across to the River Mersey and Liverpool. It will also be modularly constructed, providing work experience opportunities for construction students at Wirral Metropolitan College.
Egerton Village is due to benefit from funding from the Wirral Waters Investment Fund. Because Wirral Waters is part of the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone, the local authority can retain 100% of new business rates generated from tenants, but on the proviso that the rates are then reinvested back into the Enterprise Zone.
Richard Mawdsley, director of development at Peel L&P, said: “Egerton Village is a really important development at Wirral Waters as it will help provide some of the facilities and amenities that are missing but that lie at the heart of a regeneration project.
“It has been designed to serve new and existing residents, students and local businesses as well as visitors. Securing planning is a positive step forward.”