2,000 new homes on the waterfront

WARRINGTON’S bold Waterfront regeneration scheme has the potential to deliver more than 2,000 new homes over the next 15 years – plus 34 hectares of land for commercial use.
It can also provide three hectares of community “green space” and six hectares of land for mixed and leisure uses.
This is revealed in a report to be presented to the borough council’s executive board by leader of the council Terry O’Neill  on Tuesday.
Importantly, it would also provide the proposed high-level fixed bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal providing alternative access to Warrington, avoiding the existing swing bridges.
Cllr O’Neill (pictured) stresses that it is a large and complex scheme because of a number of natural and man-made constraints including the Mersey, the Ship Canal, the West Coast Main Railway Line and the Arpley freight line.
Further work is necessary to identify the mix of developments possible and what transport infrastructure is needed.
Main aims of the Waterfront proposals are to deliver strategic development capacity for the inner Warrington area, including land for new housing,  offices, leisure and managed green spaces. This includes making better use of Warrington’s key “blue assets” along the Mersey.
They are also to extend the highway network across south west Warrington, creating additional network resilience in the event of unexpected incidents on the highway network. This includes the high level bridge at Chester Road.
Phase one of the scheme, to be carried out by 2019, would include a  new bridge from Chester Road into Centre Park, improvement to Slutchers Lane, a new gyratory arrangement in the Palmyra Square area, improvement to the junction of Wilson Patten Street and Slutchers Lane and the junction of Sankey Street and Liverpool Road.
There would also be traffic engineering improvement on Winmarleigh Street and to the Chester Road Swing Bridge.
As a result of successful finding bids,  £5.3 million has been allocated to the first phase of the work – but there is still a funding gap of £5.7 million to meet its predicted cost of £11 million. The borough council may have to underwrite this sum if other funding sources are not identified.
Site work could start in 2017.
Cllr O’Neill will ask the executive to approve public consultation on the early stages of the scheme, start negotiations with landowners over acquisition of land required and to approve in principle the use of compulsory purchase powers in the event it is impossible to acquire land by negotiation.