Yahoo News Major update on plans to regenerate site of demolished city centre flyovers
Plans to regenerate the land around the demolished Churchill Way flyovers in the city centre are taking the next step forward. The flyovers were originally part of an inner ring road scheme that was never fully built and they were demolished between 2019 and 2020.
Liverpool City Council says that the demolition unlocked potential for development in and around Hunter Street and Byrom Street as well as access and connectivity potential for residents in communities to the north of the city centre. The site for regeneration, which it is calling 'St George's Gateway', is 35-hectares.
It is defined to its east by Lime Street Station, Dale Street to the west, Hunter Street to the north and Whitechapel to the south. Byrom Street currently dissects the site, providing access to the Queensway Tunnel which sits at the centre of the site, adjacent to St Johns Gardens. The council says it has "significant development potential with major opportunities for sustainable growth and enhanced connectivity set within a world class public realm."
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As it proceeds with the plans, the council, in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University and National Museums Liverpool, is now looking to procure the services of a highly experienced consultancy team, to prepare a detailed Planning Policy and Delivery Framework. It explains: "This project represents a unique opportunity to assist the three partners in re-shaping this historic area through identifying strategic and detailed interventions, including design codes that put quality of place at its heart, with culture, connectivity, sustainability and wellbeing at the forefront."
The advert for the contract states the framework should:
Identify and propose interventions to unlock and maximise the value of potential development sites and land use strategy in the context of delivering quality of place.
Set design codes for the area; character areas; and sites including appropriate use and design/place requirements which respond to unique character and context.
Set out potential interventions for the creative reuse of derelict or under used buildings.
Set out detailed public realm and landscape interventions, with a clear strategy for reconnecting this part of the city centre with an emphasis on improved walkability, active travel, legibility and permeability, connecting this area and north Liverpool into the city centre.
Propose deliverable transport improvements and interventions in the context of an emerging city centre mobility strategy (Urban Mobility and Public Spaces Strategy), and a drive towards active travel and net zero and reduce severance in the area
Promote introduction of green space for enhanced biodiversity, climate mitigation, improved placemaking, creating of micro-climates and capture of surface water run-off.
St George's Gateway is one of nine key areas that are part of an 'accelerated development zone' aimed at boosting the city's economic fortunes. They were designed by a regeneration organisation set up after the city's council was rocked by a devastating inspection report that saw government commissioners land in the city as well as a number of council-linked arrests as part of a police corruption investigation. The project was announced by the government in August 2022 after a damning second report by the commissioners team in the city.
The nine zones were revealed in March and are: Ten Streets, Pumpfields, Greatie Market, Pall Mall & Moorfields, St George’s Gateway, Fabric District, Upper Central/Central Station and Paddington Village.
