Wirral, United Kingdom
City population: 319680
Duration: 2010 – ongoing
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Previous derelict area
Last updated: October 2021

Wirral Waters is the largest regeneration project in the UK. It will transform over 500 acres of the Birkenhead docklands into an internationally recognizable destination (where e.g. innovation and sustainability will thrive). (Ref. 1, 2). While the whole project will take up to 30 years to finish, the first phase has started in 2019 and building work has begun on three projects which will bring 1,000 homes and breathe new life into 500 acres of former dockland in the town. £220 million will be invested in the next three to four years alone in an effort to build high quality, high-density accommodation with lots of green space and employment opportunities close by (Ref 10,11).

Wirral Water Planned Project
Wirral Water Planned Project
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/wirral-waters-behind-schedule-after-16962797

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Alley or street trees and other street vegetation
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
  • Blue infrastructure
  • Rivers/streams/canals/estuaries
  • Coastlines

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Social justice and equity
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Improving mental health
  • Improving physical health
  • Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
  • Economic development: service sectors
  • Real estate development
  • Employment/job creation
  • Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
  • Sustainable production

Focus

Creation of new green areas, Transformation of previously derelict areas, Other

Project objectives

Wirral Waters will transform the derelict docks in Birkenhead into a world class waterfront (25 miles of coastline). Wirral Waters is the largest regeneration project in the UK. It is also set to become the most sustainable. (Ref. 1, 2) Wirral Waters is immediately located within an area of economic need, thereby making the scheme essential to help drive economic growth in East Wirral as well as the City Region. (Ref. 2) The water (blue infrastructure) and landscape (green infrastructure) strategies that underpin the Wirral Waters ‘masterplan’ design are fundamental elements of the design of the project. Wirral Waters seeks to make the most of the water assets of the Docks and the River Mersey – for place making and leisure activity – and also to introduce a very strong landscape approach to what is a harsh, post-industrial environment. (Ref. 1, 2, 5)

Implementation activities

Will create a place with over 20 000 permanent jobs and over 14 000 new homes. (Ref. 1, 5) A tree planting project has already begun. Peel have been working with both the Forestry Commission and Mersey Forest under the ‘Setting the Scene for Growth’ campaign, where funding for trees via BIS is used to help to create jobs and growth. (Ref. 5) The green infrastructure includes creation of a network of attractive, productive greenways and greenspaces, improve health and wellbeing, open up connections to places of work and education, planting of temporary, fast growing coppice or forest trees to produce a biomass crop (in 3-5 years), the objective is to bring about significant improvements to the environmental and visual quality of the docklands, sites may also include food growing and wildflower sowing. (Ref. 5)

Main beneficiaries

  • National-level government
  • Local government/Municipality
  • Private sector/Corporate/Company
  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Private sector/corporate actor/company

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
  • Taskforce groups

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

The Wirral Waters project is supported by the UK's Central Government. It was designated Enterprise Zone status in 2011. This opportunity is recognised in the wider economic growth strategies of the Atlantic Gateway, the Liverpool City Region LEP, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and the emerging Combined Authority. It is a priority project in the North West region. (Ref. 2). The project was launched by Peel Holdings in 2006. (Ref. 5) Partners include: Liverpool City Region LEP, Wirral Borough Council, Forestry Commission, Vectos. (Ref. 7, 8)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? No ("Wirral Waters is development by Peel Holdings and has Enterprise Zone designation from Government. The Council’s objectives for the project are to provide major job growth in the heart of the most deprived neighbourhoods." (Ref. 9) )

Financing

Total cost

More than €4,000,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Public national budget
  • Corporate investment

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of land
  • Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Public authorities (e.g. land, utility services)
  • Private sector (businesses, financial institution)

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Enhanced carbon sequestration
  • Environmental quality
  • Improved air quality
  • Improved waste management
  • Reduced noise exposure
  • Improved soil quality
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area
  • Increased spread of native/heirloom/open-pollinated seed
  • Other
  • Unknown

Economic impacts

  • Unknown
  • Increase of green jobs (e.g. paid employment positions)
  • More sustainable tourism
  • Increased property prices
  • Stimulate development in deprived areas
  • Attraction of business and investment
  • Generation of income from NBS
  • Increased market share for green economies

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Increased access to healthy/affordable food
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Improved mental health
  • Education
  • Increased support for education and scientific research
  • Unknown

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Yes

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

Yes

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No

References

Ref. 1. Wirral Waters (n.d.) Wirral Waters. Peel Land & Property. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Updated in 2020. Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 2. Wirral Waters (n.d.) About Wirral Waters. Peel Land & Property. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Updated in 2020. Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 3. BBC News (2010) Wirral Waters could transform Birkenhead fortunes. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 4. The Guardian (2013) The breathtaking potential of Liverpool (and Wirral) Waters. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 5. Wirral Council (2011) Setting the scene for Wirral Waters - A Green infrastructure investment framework. Wirral Waters. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 6. BBC News (2010) Approval for £4.5bn Wirral waterfront regeneration. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 7. Wirral Waters (n.d.) The partners and government support. Peel Land & Property. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 8. Vectos (n.d.) Wirral Waters, Birkenhead Docks. Case Study project. Information obtained: 2017-07-26. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 9. Wirral Waters (2011) Indiactive Economic Assessment. August 2011. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 10. Liverpool Echo (2019). Work begins on bringing 1,000 new homes to Birkenhead. Source: Source link [Accessed on 27 August 2020]
Ref. 11. Liverpool Echo (2019) Wirral Waters 'behind schedule' after investors slow to commit to regeneration project. Source: Source link [Accessed on 27 August 2020]
Ref. 12. Urbansplash (2020) East Float Wirral Waters. Source: Source link [Accessed 27 August 2020]
Ref. 13. Wirral Waters (2020). Covid-19 Update. Source: Source link [Accessed on 27 August 2020]