Birkenhead shops and offices development scheme could create 500 new jobs

Dec 26 2011 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Echo

MORE than 500 jobs could be created in a major new development planned for Birkenhead town centre.

The proposals are for new shops and offices on a largely unused area behind Central Station, on the edge of the main shopping district.

Local councillor and Wirral’s cabinet member for regeneration, Phil Davies, welcomed the proposals for an area which has remained derelict for many years, saying it was “good news” for the town.

Already in 2011 Birkenhead town centre has seen a major new Asda store open along with a massive expansion of local call centre group, The Contact Company, creating hundreds of new jobs nearby.

Cllr Davies said: “We have been trying to develop that area between Central Station and through to the A41, trying to come up with a good plan for a regeneration scheme for a number of years now.

“If we can make that happen at long last it would be fantastic in terms of really lifting that whole part of Birkenhead, which is slightly on the periphery of the town centre.”

The application by National Grid Property Holdings and the Homes and Communities Agency is for outline permission to create shops, offices, a restaurant, car showroom and a creche, and the scheme is due to come before Wirral’s first planning committee meeting of 2012.