Come on in, the Water’s Lovely

Will Wirral Waters enjoy its time in the sun, or will those skyscrapers seem like so many beached whales by 2040?

Wirral Waters - the Dubai of the North - is set to get the seal of approval on Thursday, as the £4.5 billion regeneration scheme gets the green light from Councillor Joe Anderson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, when he meets Wirral Council Leader Jeff Green and Peel Holdings’ Development Director Lindsey Ashworth.

Wirral Waters is an 18 million sq ft masterplan, unlike anything the UK has ever seen. But we’re still rubbing our eyes in disbelief.

Can it really be happening? Are we really going to see Seacombe docks transformed into Maimi waterfront - complete with porn-scene Condos, yacht clubs and helipads?

Now, SevenStreets loves an outrageous artists’ impression as much as the next happy, smiling demographically on-target couple swinging designer carrier bags. But do we really want to live in one?

“The scheme will see iconic landmark buildings constructed along the waterfront opposite Liverpool, offering a stunning counterpoint to the city’s world-famous Three Graces,” says Peel.

It’ll take 30 years to complete. So let’s just hope glass and steel, and tall and sleek is still de rigueur then. Imagine if it had been planned thirty years ago and it was just nearing completion now?

In fact, don’t imagine - just go and look at the Royal University Hospital, you know, the one that opened its doors in 1978, and they’re desperate to knock down now.

Thirty years is a long time in architecture. So don’t put too much store on those eye-popping, and rather anodyne visuals. We fervently hope Wirral Waters goes ahead. Just as we hope that, when the time comes, the tide will, well and truly, have turned, and we’ll have a waterfront that really reflects its location: and not look like a vertical Ponzi scheme from some long-ago faded Emirate.

Unless, of course, you’ve always been more Stargate Atlantis than Seacombe Aquarium?

Wirral Council will consider its planning permission on 3 Aug. Have your say: fill in a questionnaire at Williamson Art Gallery, Slatey Road, Oxton.

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