Liverpool Waters plan 'may affect city heritage'

The scheme could create 25,000 jobs

English Heritage is calling for plans for the £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme to be reviewed, amid fears it will affect the city's historical remains.

Peel Holdings is to build a series of high-rise buildings including offices, shops and up to 14,000 apartments on the northern docklands.

The conservation group said underground car parks could damage buried remains of the docks.

The firm said talks to find a solution without a public inquiry were ongoing.

English Heritage wants further clarification of plans for the redevelopment of the Central Docks.

The proposals cover an area of dockland stretching from Bath Street to Blackstone Street.

Peel Holdings has claimed the development will rival New York, Vancouver and Shanghai and create more than 25,000 jobs.

Development director, Lindsey Ashworth, said: "We've spent the last few years working with English Heritage, and the scheme started off with a lot more tall buildings.

"It's got them down now to two clusters and I'm not taking it down any further."

Peel Holdings say the scheme has already been reviewed

"I think English Heritage now are going to have to find a way to agree with us the way the scheme is, as what I'm not having is a series of grey warehouses.

"That was alright 100 years ago, but for the needs of this century, we need to have something dynamic on the land," he added.

A spokesperson for English Heritage said: "English Heritage fully supports the principle of a major scheme of regeneration in the Central Docks.

"However we have advised Liverpool City Council that what is currently proposed could harm the World Heritage Site.

"The construction of underground car parks would remove buried remains of the docks through which Liverpool traded on the world stage."

He said an assessment of the effect of Liverpool Waters on the World Heritage Site, which would help the council decide on the planning application, had been commissioned.

"We have advised that we cannot support the scheme on the basis of the information currently available, we will work closely with Peel and the council to resolve the concerns we have identified," he said.