Views on Ellesmere Port waterfront development plans are wanted

Oct 29 2008 by Sue McCann, Bromborough and Bebington News

PLANNERS want to hear the views of people in Eastham on the future development of Ellesmere Port’s waterfront area.

Ellesmere Port and Neston Council has drawn up a draft development brief for the area, which landowner Peel Holdings wants to redevelop for a major housing scheme over the next 25 years.

Now residents and businesses are to be asked their views on the redevelopment as part of a five-week consultation exercise.

Anyone in the immediate area of the 70 acre site will be sent a letter inviting them to take part in the consultation.

A draft copy of the development brief can be found linked from the homepage of the council’s website www.epnbc.gov.uk and is also available to be viewed at the council’s planning department.

The scheme would require the relocation of the existing dock operation to a new site on the Ellesmere Port and Neston/Wirral boundary near to Eastham.

Mike Worden, the council’s planning policy manager, said: “The potential scale of development will be the largest ever seen in a single housing development in Ellesmere Port and it is essential that it is guided appropriately.”

Peel Holdings is expected to put in a planning application for the first phase of the development, which will comprise around 1,500 homes, early in 2009.