Planning secured on complex strategic employment site
Identified as a strategic employment site in the local plan, our full environmental and transport planning services helped secure planning on this complex former oils and soap manufacturing site.
Mersey Reach is a high-profile development site close to Switch Island where the M57 and M58 meet, and within two miles of Liverpool2, the city’s new deep water container terminal.
Our multi-disciplinary services helped leading industrial property developer, Chancerygate, achieve planning permission.
The scheme consists of three units totalling over 7,000 sq. m available on a leasehold basis, with a 3,300 sq. m unit pre-let to Selco to trade as a builders’ warehouse, and a two-acre plot at the front of the site sold to Euro Garages for a Starbucks drive-thru and a petrol filling station. A further 4.5 acres is also available as part of the development.
The site was previously home to Peerless & Lunt Edible Oils and soap manufacturing works from the 1920s and has been redundant for more than 20 years. Identified as a strategic employment site in the Sefton Local Plan, our geo-environmental services, alongside our traffic and transport, air quality and acoustics expertise has contributed to the regeneration of the site for Chancerygate who are able to create a significant number of new jobs in the area through this development.
Our land quality team undertook a ground investigation to inform the remediation strategy for the site given its industrial heritage.
Our transport team developed a transport assessment and travel plan for the scheme which met the approval of Highways England and the Local Highway Authority (Sefton Council). Traffic movements in the area are complex, the site being off a main thoroughfare through to Liverpool city centre to the west and the M57/M58 interchange to the east. Our team agreed the scope of assessments with Highways England and Sefton Council and subsequently reviewed the accessibility of the site by sustainable modes, trip generation analysis during peak times, junction capacity assessments, site access arrangements, and parking provision.
We also conducted an environmental noise survey and air quality study as part of the planning submission and our assessments met the requirements of Sefton Council.
Image courtesy of Blink Image.
