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Thread: Gillmoss

  1. #16
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    A MULTI-MILLION pound deal to rebuild a flattened Liverpool community has collapsed.

    Developer David McLean Homes has pulled out of a deal to build 600 homes on the site off the East Lancs Road once occupied by the Gillmoss estate.

    The firm told Liverpool council the long-awaited scheme was not viable because of the property market.

    Community leaders today accused the council of letting down the former residents of Gillmoss, who were moved out of the estate on the basis it would be rebuilt with shops and sports facilities.

    The last few families to leave the four Gillmoss streets went through years of hell when yobs and arsonists started attacking empty homes.

    Plans to replace the estate with a ?100m community called Stonebridge Cross were first unveiled by the council in 2002.

    But after years of delays, the original scheme involving Tesco and David McLean Homes collapsed.

    It was then revived as a housing-only development, with David McLean Homes back on board.

    After the last few residents were rehoused, the four streets were demolished earlier this year.

    Now officials will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new scheme.

    Croxteth councillor Rose Bailey said: ?This whole experience has been awful.

    ?All those people did not want to move out, but they did for the benefit of the whole community. Now we are left with an open space.

    ?The council must now come up with a firm plan, and I think there should be an inquiry into why a community was devastated and there are no proposals on the table.?

    A council spokesman said: ?David McLean Homes notified us it is, in effect, withdrawing from the Stonebridge Cross scheme as result of the current adverse conditions in the property market.

    ?Clearly we are very disappointed, but our priority now is to look as quickly as possible at the available options for the redevelopment of this area and finding the best way forward for the community.?

    Cllr Marilyn Fielding, executive member for safer communities, added: ?We worked very hard to deliver a major project. The fact it has failed has nothing to do with the scheme, the council or the developer.

    ?It has everything to do with the collapse of the housing market and the credit crunch affecting every part of the country. Cllr Bailey should save her criticisms for Gordon Brown and the government.?

    nick.coligan@liverpool.com
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  2. #17
    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    A COLLAPSED regeneration scheme in Liverpool could be resurrected once the credit crunch is over.

    Families were moved out of four streets in Gillmoss so their estate could be flattened to make way for a Tesco supermarket and hundreds of new homes.

    Although Tesco later withdrew from the Stonebridge Cross project, developer David McLean Homes was still involved until two months ago.

    The firm then pulled out of a deal to build 600 properties, telling Liverpool council it was not viable because of the state of the market.

    The news was met with anger from current and former Gillmoss residents, who said their community was destroyed for nothing.

    Today, David McLean Homes gave a glimmer of hope the scheme might later be revived.

    Managing director Paul Halliwell said: ?Due to the changing market conditions the viability of the regeneration scheme has been significantly reduced.

    ?We have expressed our willingness to continue our interest in the Stonebridge Cross regeneration project when conditions recover.?

    Peter Lees moved out of his flat in Altbridge Park to make way for the bulldozers. He said many residents had not wanted to move.

    He said: ?Over the last decade, we have been shown all sorts of plans and exhibitions about what it would be like.

    ?Some of the people who had lived in the tower blocks there for more than 30 years reluctantly agreed to leave.

    ?But now it is not going to happen. The place is falling apart and we are probably going to have to wait another three or four years until the market conditions are right again.?

    Mr Lees now fears the derelict land, off the East Lancs Road, will be a hotspot for fly-tipping and burned-out cars.

    He added: ?There is a sense of betrayal in this community, because we were shown how wonderful it was all going to be and now it is not happening.?

    marc.waddington@liverpoolecho.co.uk
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  3. #18
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    A NEW vision is being called for to see a flattened Liverpool community rebuilt.

    A scheme to develop the Stonebridge Cross site, off the East Lancs Road, which was once occupied by the Gillmoss estate, collapsed last year when David McLean Homes pulled out.

    Now a new masterplan will be drawn up with a neighbourhood committee including councillors and residents.

    Council opposition leader Joe Anderson said as there is already planning permission for 600 homes at Gillmoss, officials should team up with a housing association to build rented homes on the site.

    He said: ?There comes a time when the rhetoric has to stop and action taken. I urge the council to intervene to help residents and businesses through direct action.

    ?I also call on the council to urgently identify and develop Stonebridge Cross, which is in desperate need.

    ?I have written to the chief executive of the council asking him to look at negotiating a plan for this site with one or more of our housing associations, the Homes and Communities Agency and building contractors to urgently develop this site.?

    But council leader Warren Braldey said the site needed a mix of uses to avoid repeating past mistakes.

    He said: ?Liverpool has seen lots of failed social rented housing in this and other parts of the city, and the council must ensure the future is not more of the same. It would be ludicrous to be as prescriptive as Cllr Anderson suggest and just put more of the same failed housing back.



    ?The housing strategy for any area of a city should not be wholly dependant on social housing, particularly in a recession.?

    Rob Monaghan, head of gateways at regeneration group Liverpool Vision, said: ?All options for the development of this site will be discussd in order to create a new masterplan.

    ?It will ensure we are in a position to move ahead quickly and effectively when the market improves.?

    The Housing and Communities Agency, which owns the site, said it was willing to talk about different options.

    Liverpool Echo
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