Future development must focus on North Liverpool says council
Feb 2 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post
DEPRIVED north Liverpool will be the focus of regeneration in the city for the coming decades, it was revealed yesterday.
A future development plan by the city council also supported the principle of Liverpool John Lennon Airport being allowed to expand into the land to its south, part of the Green Belt and centred on the hamlet of Oglet.
In an attempt to woo middle class families to run-down areas, larger and more expensive houses will be encouraged.
City centre development will continue apace, with a focus on creating jobs for a new wave of Liverpudlians who will swell the city’s population to 500,000.
But developers will be deterred from building in the outer suburbs and in the south of the city.
The long-term strategy for Liverpool’s development was published yesterday in Liverpool City Council’s local development framework core strategy.
The 80 page document aims to set parameters for the city’s growth up until 2024.
Cllr Mike Storey, executive member for regeneration, told the Daily Post it was necessary to bridge the north-south divide in the city. He said: “There was a clear danger that Liverpool was going to be city of two halves but there is some real potential in the north.
“We need to make sure that the north is as inclusive and prosperous as other parts of the city.”
Some 36,690 dwellings will be built over the next 16 years.
45% of those will be one and two bedroomed flats in the city centre, with 23% of the total going up in north Liverpool.
The majority of those 8,500 houses in the north will be private sector family houses, especially semi-detached and detached homes with gardens.
Cllr Storey admitted this was part of the housing market renewal initiative’s aim to woo middle class families to the area.
He said the key to attracting those homeowners was to create city centre-based jobs.
“At the end of the day you regenerate an area by creating jobs; the city is not going to survive if it’s not going to create jobs.
“It’s about bringing jobs to the city and then it must be about the housing tenure in the area.”
But Peter Kilfoyle, MP for Walton in north Liverpool, said he thought that the Liberal Democrat administration were playing politics with the announcements.
He said: “I’ve heard this before from the council year after year – banging on about the need for regeneration.
“They know full well there’s already a great deal of this taking place – this is an attempt to recycle an old story.
“It seems more than coincidental that as they are under pressure going into the local elections that they find the wherewithal to announce a strategy on an area that they have consistently ignored year after year.”
benschofield@dailypost.com
