Development boost for Peel Holdings

A huge redevelopment project on Merseyside headed by Manx-based Peel Holdings has been given a multi-million pound boost from the UK government.

Wirral Waters is the southern part of Peel Waters, a £10 billion scheme that would transform both the Liverpool and Birkenhead banks of the Mersey.

Yesterday, the UK’s Local Infrastructure Fund announced it would give £5.5 million to the Wirral Waters enterprise zone to improve its roads and sites.

The cash will be spent on three sites around the Birkenhead dock area.

Some of the cash will be used to prepare a site for a renewable offshore energy education centre, while also earmarked for improvements are roads around a planned International Trade Centre.

The money is the latest in a series of bids for Government cash which total £20 million and would see preparation work fasttracked before Peel starts its project.

Eventually, Wirral Waters will provide up to 20,000 jobs.

Peel’s projects director Richard Mawdsley says the company’s delighted to be shortlisted for the LIF fund by the UK’s Department for Communities and Local Government.