City to develop master plan for Baltic Triangle

LIVERPOOL City Council has appointed an award winning team of urban designers and planners to create a new master plan for 1 of the UK's creative hot spots. LDA Design, who led the master planning for the regeneration of London's Olympic Park, is to draft a Spatial Regeneration Framework (SRF) to guide the future development of the Baltic Triangle area, which lies just to the South of Liverpool City Centre. The Baltic Triangle area, which covers 37.6 hectares of mixed use land, is home to many digital and creative industries as well as popular south time economy venues, many of which are located in the historical built fabric. As a result of the area's proximity to the City Centre and its new popularity; fuelled by a blossoming creative and digital sector overseen by the Baltic Creative and Baltic Triangle CIC's, it has attracted significant levels of development. Since January 2012, ₤128 million has been invested in new developments with a further ₤62 million currently on site. However, the area has also seen significant growth in residential development over the past decade; with a doubling in its population; and there has been an ever-increasing development pressure on the remaining available land. This new report will build on the Baltic Triangle Development Framework, endorsed by the Council in December 2017, which set out a number of design and development principles. The draft SRF, which will include an expanded area incorporating Cains Brewery and surrounding neighbourhood South of upper Parliament Street, will go out to public consultation in the summer and once adopted by the Council would be used as a Supplementary Planning Document to inform any planning applications in the area.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said:- "The development of the Baltic Triangle is 1 of Liverpool's great success stories of the past decade and this new master plan will help guide and ensure this growth continues for the decades to come. Consultation with businesses and residents will be crucial to how this plan is shaped and I'm delighted we've appointed an internationally respected team of designers and planners who value community led design to oversee this process. The area's position as 1 of Britain's fastest growing digital and creative hubs is something the City takes great pride in and we want to nurture this to ensure its future as a major engine in our economy."

Once adopted the SPD would be incorporated in to Liverpool's 15 year Local Plan, which has set out key planning issues to support the City's creative cluster:-

► Supporting and encouraging further investment into creative and digital industries.

► Balancing conflicts between night time uses and residential amenity.

► Ensuring a sustainable residential neighbourhood within the L1 area.

► Improving connectivity within the area and with other parts of the City Centre.

► Bringing derelict land and vacant and underused buildings back into use.

LDA Design is 1 of the UKs leading urban design and landscape architecture consultancies and alongside their work at Stratford after the London 2012 Olympics, they also led on the master plan for University College London's pioneering new campus UCL East, as well as the public realm work at Stratford Waterfront and Here East. LDA have also been responsible for the master planning of Plymouth City Centre and Cambridge University's new Museums site, as well as delivering world leading public realm schemes at Battersea Power Station and Wembley Park.

Mark Graham, Director of LDA, said:- "The Baltic Triangle is renowned as 1 of the most creative and independent districts in the UK, with a growing global reputation, and has seen huge growth over recent years. The complexity of the place brings significant challenges and opportunities, this work will set a framework that outlines the positive future growth of the area. We are delighted to be part of it.  It has been clear from the outset that the community of the Baltic Triangle must sit at the heart of this work and play their part in shaping its future, we will therefore be working collaboratively to deliver a shared vision for the area. This aligns perfectly with LDA Design's landscape led approach to master planning which places people at the centre of design process. We look forward to working closely with local residents, businesses and landowners within the Baltic Triangle."

Mark Lawler, Managing Director of Baltic Creative CIC, commented:- "Baltic Creative CIC (a co-founder of the Baltic Triangle Area company) are delighted to see Liverpool City Council bring this important spatial framework forward. In order to protect all that is great about the Baltic Triangle Area, it is vital that this new Supplementary Planning Document supports and underpins the continued growth of the Baltic as "THE" place for creative, digital and independent industries in Liverpool. The area is now recognised nationally and internationally as an exemplar regeneration model through Creative and Digital Sector support. This spatial framework needs to recognise and protect the work of the last 10 years and support the sector's continued growth in Baltic ensuring these industries through future planning approvals are supported forever."

Liam Kelly, Chair; Baltic Triangle Area CIC, said:- "The Baltic Triangle Area CIC welcomes the work being done to produce the SRF. We've seen extraordinary growth of the area over the last decade. Support from documents like this will see us through the next decade. The Baltic area had 3 million visits in 2018 and that's expected to grow in 2019. That growth needs to be sustainable and the continued regeneration needs to share in the vision and values of the area which has defined a nationally and internationally recognised district for creativity and experiences. We're lucky to have such a vibrant example of culture and creativity in Liverpool and this document will help ensure it's there for everyone to enjoy."

Liverpool City Council recently produced and endorsed an SRF for the 10 Streets Creativity District and is currently producing an SRF to guide the future development for the Knowledge Quarter Gateway and Liverpool's Commercial District. LDA Design will be supported by an expert team of consultants including:- property consultancy Jones Lang Le Salle, international engineering firm Mott Macdonald, heritage specialist Robert Bevan and the digital marketing and place making specialists DS Emotion.

Liverpool's 'Dock Road' to reopen as key works are completed

A 2 week closure of part of Liverpool's historic "Dock Road" will end this Sunday, 20 January 2019, as key works complete.  Cadent, which manages the North West's gas network, have undertaken essential repairs to the metallic main under Waterloo Road, 1 of the oldest working gas mains in Liverpool, that dates back to 1850, near to its junction with Paisley Street.  And as part of a multi million upgrade to Waterloo and Regent Road, Council contractors Osborne will finish the latest stretch of a new pedestrian and cycle route to the junction with Sandhill's Lane. The following day, after Monday's morning peak hour, the City Center bound lanes on the adjacent Derby Road (A565) will close to traffic for 1 week, from the junction of Miller's Bridge in Bootle to Bank Hall. There will also be 4 way temporary signals in operation as the new junction is finalised. This closure marks the latest phase in the creation of a new ₤22m dual carriageway for the A565, which will complete in Autumn 2019. Motorists travelling in to Liverpool from Bootle will be guided by a series of road diversions; with drivers guided to use the Stanley Road, Commercial Road and Vauxhall Road corridors into the City Centre. The North Liverpool corridor scheme has been funded by the Local Growth Fund (LGF). Local Growth Funding is awarded to the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and invested through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority through its Strategic Investment Fund. This overall investment package of road improvements in the North Liverpool area is worth more than ₤100m and is a key element of Liverpool City Council's ₤500m Better Roads programme to invest in the City's Highways Network. The works are also seen as crucial to the development of surrounding major regeneration schemes such as the Ten Streets Creativity District and Everton FC's proposed new Stadium, at Bramley Moore Dock, in Liverpool Waters. Earlier phases on the A565 scheme included a new bridge, which was designed to support freight traffic for the Liverpool Superport and a new wall to improve access to the historic Stanley Flight canal lock system, which sits within Liverpool's World Heritage site. Councillor James Noakes, Cabinet Member for Highways, said:- "The North Liverpool corridor is a hugely complex highways scheme involving an immense amount of engineering works on 2 major roads at the same time. To ensure traffic flows this scheme can only be carried out by a phased approach which means some weeks there are full road closures and some weeks just lane closures. We really appreciate the patience of motorists as these essential works are carried out and fortunately there are other alternative routes. Of course, schemes of this nature cause disruption but the long term gains of this investment in North Liverpool's infrastructure are going to help redefine our City's economic future."