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