Knowsley council today announced plans to demolish Kirkby’s former swimming baths and clear the way for a new retail scheme.
Following public consultation in March, the council also ended speculation today that it would demolish the council’s offices and its Civic Suite.
It confirmed that residents and business now demand new retail and a food superstore as their highest priority.
Nick Kavanagh, executive director of regeneration, economy & skills at Knowsley Council, is leading the planning of the town’s future development.
He said: “As a result of the feedback we have gathered we are …

Birmingham City Council has frozen rents for traders at the Bull Ring Market to help them through the recession.
The council said it had frozen rents for stalls at the Bull Ring Rag and Bull Ring Open Market for the 2010/11 financial year. It said this would complement a scheme to create starter stalls with cheaper rents for three months.
The plan was approved on 22 February. it means a basic stall at the Rag Market will cost £16.10 on Saturdays while an Open Market stall on the same day will cost …

Developers of shops and hotels should stump up for Crossrail, an independent panel of planning inspectors has said.
Today, a the Planning Inspectorate published a report following an Examination in Public into London mayor Boris Johnson’s plans to force only office developments of more than 500 sq m to pay a contribution towards Crossrail.
In its findings, the panel recommends that hotels and shops should also make contributions to the project.
But it says they should pay less than offices because they contribute less to overcrowding on public transport at peak times.
The …

By Chris Edge, associate at HOW Planning
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The government’s latest attempt to encourage economic development, whilst sticking with the principle of ‘town centre first’, has culminated in the publication of Planning Policy Statement 4 (PPS4) in late 2009.
The question is: how does this guidance differ from PPS6 and how does it provide decision makers with the tools they need to better deal with proposals for economic development?
1) Talk to developers early
Firstly, PPS4 encourages local authorities to adopt a positive and constructive approach to applications for economic development.
The start of this process …

Independent retailers will benefit from the government’s new planning policy for town centre development, a planning consultant has reported.
Planning consultant DPP said the government’s Planning Policy Statement 4:  Planning for Sustainable Economic Growth would help smaller, independent retailers because large retailers would find it hard to push large schemes through the planning system.
The consultant added that PPS4 would not help economic growth in the UK. Mark Dodds, DPP partner said: “Larger and multiple retailers will, if anything, find it harder to push proposed developments past committed local councillors, particularly for …

The government has today published new rules that give planners more power to protect their town centres from unwelcome development.
Today, housing and planning minister John Healey (pictured) revealed the new Planning Policy Statement 4 which revises the tests under which planners scrutinise proposed developments. The aim is to focus development work on town centres. These include a ’sequential’ test to make sure development happens in places where a council wants it, and an ‘impact test’ to look at the impact of a scheme on the surrounding area.
The ‘impact test’ replaces …