Business Group Attacks "Chaotic" Liverpool Planning Policy

PROPERTY developers in Liverpool will “look elsewhere” unless the Government and the city council end the chaos surrounding its planning policy. Downtown Liverpool in Business, which represents the private sector in the city, says developers are being continually frustrated by the lack of clear direction.

Frank McKenna, chairman of DLIB, said the latest example of “madness” has seen planning officials refuse an application to develop 37 apartments on the site of the vandalised Welsh Presbyterian Chapel in the city.

Developers TRB Estates were planning to build a new chapel to breathe new life into the local Welsh community, which has been established in the city for 500 years.

Mr McKenna said: “The chapel would have to close without this project to support it.

“TRB were encouraged to work up this scheme and presented a proposal which cost them £500,000. The city’s planning department have invested £30,000 in dealing with this application.

“It is not business friendly to allow a developer to spend half a million pounds, only to pull the rug on the proposal at the last minute. It sends out all the wrong signals to potential investors in the city.”

The application was scuppered because of Government guidelines “Housing Management Renewal Initiative” (HMRI) which only permits development in Liverpool’s Pathfinder areas.

The Pathfinder areas, created by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, will potentially see hundreds of Victorian terraces compulsorily purchased and demolished to make way for new house building.

But the scheme has caused widespread controversy with some of the country’s leading developers having plans to restore rather than demolish Victorian properties rejected.
These developers, including Urban Splash, argue that to restore rather than demolish and re-build would save millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money.

Mr McKenna said: “Planning policy for Liverpool is totally flawed and needs to be rethought as a matter of urgency.

“Central government cannot dictate to developers where they can build. We should be embracing forward thinking, dynamic developers, not turning them away.”

DLIB has more than 350 members in the Liverpool business community, including a number of leading developers and major corporate sponsors such as Brabners Chaffe Street and Grant Thornton.

NOTE TO EDITORS

For more information, call Nick Mason at Mason Media on 0151 707 4512 or 07903 237008.

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