Court of Appeal approves multi-million pound Lime Street transformation

The £39m regeneration of Liverpool’s Lime Street is set proceed after the Court of Appeal rejected a bid to overturn planning permission.

Handing down judgement today (August 2), Lord Justice Sales and Lord Justice Lindblom dismissed an appeal for a Judicial Review from SAVE Britain’s Heritage, which claimed Liverpool City Council breached planning guidance in failing to notify the Department for Culture Media and Sport and UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.

The Lord Justices agreed with the original ruling, made by The Honourable Mrs Justice Patterson DBE back in January 2016, that the council acted appropriately.

The eight-figure scheme will involve redeveloping the eastern side of Lime Street for retail, leisure and commercial uses, with projects including a new hotel and student accommodation.

Property firm Neptune Developments is delivering the scheme, which is fully funded and received planning consent in September 2015.

Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, said of the decision: “Our commitment to heritage has seen the number of buildings on the at risk register at a 24-year low and some, including the Royal Insurance Building and Stanley Dock, brought back into viable use due to our intervention.

“This is a city that has demonstrated clearly that it is committed to preserving old buildings where it is viable to do so. Unfortunately that has not been the case as far as Lime Street is concerned.”

He continued: “It is now almost a year since we granted this scheme planning permission, and due to the legal action this scheme has been in limbo, meaning Lime Street, one of the city’s key gateway routes, has not had the investment that it so desperately needed.

“We have now had two thorough and comprehensive independent examinations of this decision and in both cases we have been found to have acted entirely appropriately and properly.”

As part of the transformation, it was found that the distinctive façade of the historic Lime Street building that once housed the Futurist cinema could not be saved due to its poor structural condition – a decision since accepted by Save the Futurist, a campaign group set up to oppose the plans.

Mayor Anderson continued: “We have recently spent hundreds of thousands of pounds having to make the façade of The Futurist safe, causing massive disruption in the area. All of this could have been avoided had SAVE accepted the original judgement from the High Court in January.

“I am appealing to SAVE Britain’s Heritage to stop delaying much-needed projects that will create many jobs for the people of our city.”

Speaking further, the Mayor said SAVE needs to “stop wasting the public’s time and money on vexatious and spurious legal challenges” that put schemes at risk “without coming up with viable, fully costed and deliverable alternatives”.

The managing director of Neptune Developments, Steve Parry, has now written directly to SAVE to ask the group to “face reality”.

He explained: “This series of legal challenges have cost more than £2m and have been a monumental waste of money and time for all those involved.

“More importantly it has been a wasted opportunity to get on with a much needed piece of regeneration creating jobs and opportunities for the people of Liverpool and removing the dereliction that blights this gateway to Liverpool.”

Matt Brook, the director of the scheme’s architects, Broadway Malyan, hailed the Court of Appeal’s ruling as “fantastic news”, paving the way for a regeneration project that will “reinstate Lime Street as a key destination”.

He said: “Liverpool has enjoyed a significant renaissance in recent years with substantial investment especially along the waterfront.

“Our proposals for Lime Street are a key part of Liverpool’s ongoing regeneration, it will provide the much needed improvement to one of the city’s main gateways as was well as improving an important connection to the Knowledge Quarter, providing a catalyst for the wider regeneration of the Lime Street area.”