Memorandum submitted by Sefton Metropolitan
Borough Council
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1.1 Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
are currently engaged in delivering the Housing Market Renewal
programme in Merseyside.
1.2 The programme is being delivered in
partnership with a range of public and private sectors partners,
notably British Waterways.
1.3 British Waterways are an active partner
in the local authority's objective of bringing forward canal side
sites for development.
1.4 The Coffee House Bridge Development
will see land assets owned by British Waterways, Sefton Metropolitan
Borough Council and the Liverpool Diocesan Board of Finance marketed
to the private sector as a single development opportunity based
upon a jointly developed regeneration framework.
2. STRATEGIC
POLICY CONTEXT
2.1 NewHeartlands, the Merseyside Housing
Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinder, covers part of the districts
of Sefton, Liverpool and Wirral.
2.2 Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
are currently delivering an HMR programme in the south of the
borough which addresses a number of structural weaknesses in the
housing market. A significant element of this regeneration programme
is focused on the Leeds and Liverpool canal.
2.3 Historical land use adjacent to the
Leeds and Liverpool canal in south Sefton was primarily heavy
industry which developed in the area during the Industrial Revolution.
The slow decline of industries such as tin smelting, tar distillation,
and leather tanning has left the area with a legacy of derelict
and heavily contaminated canal side land.
2.4 The HMR strategy for south Sefton focuses
on the canal as a key asset and will see a number of derelict
industrial sites re-developed for residential use, as part of
a wider holistic regeneration strategy.
3. APPROACH
3.1 The HMR programme in Sefton is delivered
in partnership with both the private and public sectors.
3.2 The approach that has been adopted in
order to deliver the core objectives of the HMR strategy in south
Sefton is for the local authority to assemble developable sites
which are then taken forward to the market by the private sector.
3.3 In addition, the improvement of the
canal corridor itself, partially utilising funding secured from
European sources, will provide a high quality and safe pedestrian,
cycle and canal boat route which links HMR sites in Sefton to
a number of other regeneration initiatives in the area, including
development and public realm improvements in Liverpool City Centre.
3.4 The HMR strategy in south Sefton has
been developed to maximise both the physical and metaphorical
links with other regeneration initiatives. The adjacency of the
Leeds and Liverpool canal, and other land assets, to HMR sites
in south Sefton means that British Waterways are a key public
sector partner in the programme.
4. COFFEE HOUSE
BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT
4.1 British Waterways are currently engaged
in a partnering approach with Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
and the Liverpool Diocesan Board of Finance to market canal side
land assets owned by each of the partners (known as the Coffee
House Bridge development) to the private sector as a single development
opportunity based upon a jointly developed regeneration and planning
framework.
4.2 The approach that has been taken on
this site will ensure that the resulting development will be of
the highest quality in terms of design and how it relates to the
canal itself. As such the scheme is being driven primarily by
regeneration objectives.
4.3 It is anticipated that the completion
of the scheme proposed for the Coffee House Bridge sites will
have a significant impact consistent with the objectives of the
Housing Market Renewal programme in south Sefton.
Lee Payne
Programme Co-ordinator
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
March 2008
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