Greens welcome brownfield only Wirral Local Plan
This is an outstanding Local Plan. This Local Plan means much needed homes will be built only on brownfield sites – not on our precious green belt.
Well done to everyone involved in bringing it forward for councillors of all colours to adopt unanimously.
A couple of highlights are that:
Firstly, many former industrial sites will be cleaned up from corporate contamination and instead used for living and breathing by new communities and wildlife.
Secondly, urban green spaces are enhanced because they are vital for our mental wellbeing and for nature. The Plan includes “all new residential areas should have… facility specifically for children’s play within 400 meters walk”.
In my own ward of Bromborough, there is planning permission for two thousand new low-carbon homes on half a dozen brownfield sites.
On behalf of all Green councillors, I’d like to welcome people who are choosing to make the Wirral their home. All our new residents and friends are very welcome, whether you have generations of roots in the Wirral or are from further afield or both. You are welcome in every way – including in our schools, health and social care, cultural life and public spaces.
Of course this Local Plan, for at least 14,400 new homes, is subject to “early review”, and but a milestone on our journey to 2040 and beyond.
The new homes actually have to be built. This Plan is back-loaded, with targets of at least 500 (509) new homes a year until 2028, around 850 (846) new homes a year (between 2029 and) until 2033, and a thousand (1,021) a year in the last 7 years (between 2033 and 2040). If these targets are not met, the only-for-profit developers, such as Leverhulme Estates, will gain the legal right to build on greenbelt and grey belt sites.
Looking back in recent years, Wirral’s track record for delivering new homes, is good. We can all see 500 new apartments built by Peel in Wirral Waters. And in 2022/23, there were 800 (802) new homes built on the Wirral. (Up from 687 in 2021/22 and 565 the year before that. There were 818 new homes in 2019/20).
Of course, developers will only build if they can sell or rent the homes. So looking forward, that’s why Wirral Council have to keep investing time and money in the successful regeneration of Birkenhead. That means involving local councillors and the communities we represent. It means constructive relations with government, the Combined Authority, private and third sector partners that are keen to invest in our shared future.
I’m looking forward to it.
02.04.2025