After hearing about the initial development plans for Liverpool’s Festival Garden site, I was eager to find out more. During IFB2016, back in June, Formby Surveys Managing Director, Andy Roberts witnessed K2 Architect’s presentation on how their vision for Festival Park could be the start of something that triggers significant change and investment in Liverpool.  You can take a look at Andy’s article here.

K2 Architects and Liverpool City Council recently held a public consultation in Liverpool Town Hall, enabling members of the public to have their say on the proposed plans, feeding back thoughts and ideas for what they liked and disliked.

The current masterplan aims to create a ‘cultural garden suburb’ that will transform what’s currently known at the Festival Gardens, into a major visitor and cultural destination. The development plans for the 90-acre site focus on the northern and central parts of the park whilst also aiming to remodel the waterfront.

While surveys are currently being undertaken to assess ground conditions, it was incredibly insightful to see how the draft masterplan aims to integrate new development into surrounding communities, introducing safer pedestrian routes to Priory Wood and St. Michaels station, whilst also building a school to ease the pressure off other schools in the area that are already at capacity. The plans also include proposed areas of commerce, introducing cafes, restaurants and shops.

So, what happens next? Well, after Christmas and after collating all of the feedback from the general public, the proposals will be presented to the Council’s Cabinet in January. After that, the council and K2 Architects intend to produce a refined masterplan by the end of Spring 2017, with the aim to submit the application for outline planning in Summer 2017.

3 of the Formby Surveys team attended the consultation and we were all thoroughly impressed with what we saw, we can’t wait to see the plans become a reality and for an area that clearly needs some attention, to be redesigned and modernised, bringing in both locals and people from across the UK.