Controversial West Kirby Sail plan looks set to move forward

Sep 23 2009 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

COMPULSORY purchase powers could be used to press ahead with a controversial hotel scheme in west Wirral.

A leaked report to the authority’s cabinet, which meets later this week, recommends the council press ahead with the Sail project, on the banks of West Kirby’s marine lake.

The report details the conditions under which Wirral council officers recommend the scheme should proceed.

It was halted earlier this year when the authority said it wanted to work with Carpenters, the developers behind the project, before making a final decision.

The scheme was heavily criticised by the Conservative opposition and Tory local councillors.

Late last year, the hotel element of the scheme, which also includes a new sailing school, was dramatically reduced in size and plans for an underground car park abandoned.

This, according to those opposing the project, would have resulted in unacceptable pressure on parking spaces in the town and for users of the marine lake.

Then some members of the cabinet were critical of the new designs, and described them as “not iconic enough”.