Councillors on Liverpool City Council’s planning committee WILL allow multi-million pound residential scheme to go ahead after initially blocking it in December. Tony McDonough reports
Plans for 261 new apartments in the Baltic Triangle in Liverpool will become a reality after councillors performed a swift u-turn after initially refusing planning permission.
Carpenter Investments first submitted its application for the 13-storey development at One Kings Dock Street in November 2022. This followed months of pre-applications and discussions with the council.
After numerous changes and tweaks to comply with local plan and other policy requirements the application went to the planning committee on December 5, 2023, with a full recommendation for approval from the planning officers.
However, the city’s planning committee unanimously rejected the scheme. Councillors were concerned at the lack of affordable housing and Section 106 payments (this is money developers pay for improvements to the local community).
Officers had agreed that both these aspects would damage the scheme’s viability.
In mid-January this year Alan Bevan, managing director of City Residential, warned the decision risked undermining efforts by council leader Liam Robinson and chief executive Andrew Lewis to get the development pipeline in Liverpool moving again.
“Many developers and funders are still very sceptical of the city but have been starting to sit up and take notice in the belief that we may well have turned the corner,” said Alan.
Speaking to Place North West after the committee reversed its decision on Tuesday, Carpenter Investments owner Alan Beer said: “I think there will be a sign of relief across the development community.”
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Allowing the development to go before the committee for a second go is standard council procedure. Once again, officers recommended approval and, despite there being no changes to the scheme, this time councillors gave the green light.
“The committee itself was very, very different to the earlier committee we had,” added Alan. “They were listening, and they were interested and enthusiastic about the scheme.”
He said main contractor Carpenter Build was aiming to be on site for One Kings Dock Street in the second half of 2024.