‘Bold and ambitious’ plans unveiled for new Liverpool Festival Park

Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson has revealed plans to turn the former International Festival Gardens site into a cultural garden suburb.

The proposals for the new Festival Park include improved gardens and public realm, cultural venues and space for retailers and restaurants, wildlife areas, fisheries, inlets and docks.

Put together by Liverpool architects K2, the plans raise the prospect of introducing a Mersey Ferry landing stage and overhauling the site’s connection with nearby St Michaels railway station.

The city council is also hoping to create up to 3,000 new homes at Festival Park. For the next 70 years, the properties would be powered using an energy cell that would remediate waste at the site.

The Cabinet has already greenlit remediation work, due to begin this autumn, on a nine-acre site next to the Britannia Inn on Riverside Drive. Seven of the nine acres could be sold off for a residential scheme.

Speaking today (June 29) on the IFB2016 Blue Skies stage, Mayor Anderson said: “We have a bold and ambitious vision for the Festival Park.

“It is a site which has languished without being properly developed for far too long, but we are determined for it to achieve its potential and become a major destination the entire city region can be proud of.”

He continued: “We are at the start of a long term project to deliver a first class visitor and cultural destination with limited residential development on part of the site.

“Over the coming months we will be involving partners and local residents and getting their ideas and feedback. This is a site which very many people are very fond of, and it is vital that we take our time in getting this right.”

K2 architects director Kevin Horton commented: “When we were approached to create a vision for the former festival gardens, we asked ourselves, how can we create long-term sustainable value on one of the city’s most challenging sites?

“By transforming its legacy of problems into worthwhile opportunities we have created an ambitious vision for the waterfront that captures Liverpool’s modern character.”

Kevin added: “It is aspirational and confident which further cements the city’s position as a desirable European destination.”