Liverpool's Lime Street revamp approved after legal bid rejected

New shops and student accommodation have been planned for Lime Street

A £35m regeneration scheme in Liverpool city centre is due to go ahead after the High Court rejected a legal bid to overturn planning permission.

The project focuses on Lime Street and includes plans for new shops, hotel and student accommodation.

It was approved by Liverpool City Council last August, but Save Britain's Heritage (SBH) launched a bid for a judicial review over the consultation.

Work is due to start in February. SBH said it would consider an appeal.

'Rigorously considered'

Mrs Justice Patterson dismissed the application, which was made in December on the grounds that the council had failed to notify the Department for Culture Media and Sport and Unesco's World Heritage Committee before granting permission.

An SBH spokeswoman said: "The suggested replacement proposals are poor and, crucially, unnecessary.

"The fact that the street is in poor repair is not an excuse to tear it down."

Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said the council was "confident that we had properly and rigorously considered this application".

"We want to get on with allowing the developers to invest in their vision and bring Lime Street up to a much higher standard than it has been for decades," he added.

Steve Parry, managing director at Neptune Developments - which is behind the scheme - said: "There has already been a cost associated with a delay that has impacted on the project's financial viability."

However, a company spokesman said £35m had been secured from a "major blue-chip pension fund".