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Festival Gardens plan set to
move forward
THE 1st Phase of work to transform
the former International Festival Gardens in Liverpool is set to be approved.
The City Council took control of the site last year, with the aim of making it a
major visitor and cultural destination together with a limited amount of
residential development.
The Council wants the site; which is already open to the public as gardens; to
become an extension of the City's Current Cultural, Leisure and Residential Offers.
A report to the Cabinet, on Friday, 10 June 2016, reveals that architects have been
appointed to develop a master plan for the site.
Now the Cabinet is being asked to give the go ahead to remediation work on nine
acres of land adjacent to the Britannia Inn, 7 acres of which could then be
sold for a residential development.
It is estimated that the sale of the land for housing would generate a net
profit to the City Council, when allowing for the cost of treating the ground.
Surveys of the Gardens and southern grasslands are also getting underway to give
a comprehensive understanding of the ground conditions across the whole site,
which will inform the master plan.
Councillor Malcolm Kennedy, Cabinet member for regeneration, said:- "The
International Festival Gardens site has huge potential and had languished for
too long without being properly developed. By taking ownership of the site
we are now in a position to develop a comprehensive plan for its future as a
great visitor and cultural destination also incorporating a limited amount of
housing. We have already seen a glimpse of its potential as a location for
cultural events when we held the Luminous Landscapes festival on the site, which
attracted more than 10,000 people. This is just the start of a long term process
to carefully develop a site which is hugely important to the City and which many
people are very fond of."
Contractors are also working on clearing overgrown vegetation on part of the
site with a view to using it as events space during the summer months, ahead of
remediation starting in the autumn.
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