Knowsley Council’s Cabinet will meet next week (Wednesday, 20 November) to consider plans for the next steps in the transformation of Huyton Village Centre.
As part of the Huyton Masterplan, the Council is proposing a complete redevelopment which would create a vibrant and thriving re-imagined centre, focused around an attractive village green.
Affordable town centre living; a new hotel and commercial office space would combine to significantly increase the local footfall and help grow the leisure and hospitality offer which is already springing up in Huyton.
The high street would benefit from a new community hub, including a library, community facilities and spaces for leisure, skills and cultural activities.
And there would be a new surface car park, replacing the current multi-storey, with EV charging, provision for cycles and better links to public transport.
Having delivered a wholescale redevelopment of Kirkby Town Centre, Knowsley Council has already shown that it can deliver ambitious projects that bring significant benefits to the local community and economy.
After purchasing Kirkby Town Centre in 2019, the Council delivered a 94,000 sq ft retail development in just two years. As a result, BBC research highlighted Kirkby’s footfall had increased by 160% and it was named by the Financial Times as one of the top three areas in terms of recovery from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
The Council was also the driver behind the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, which has led to the incredible “Shakespeare effect” in the town which now has an array of food and drink outlets and a successful night-time economy.
Now Huyton Village could be the next to benefit from a multi-million pound makeover.
At the Cabinet meeting, councillors will be asked to agree to an initial investment of £3.6m to progress the development opportunity to technical design and planning stage, which is essential in efforts to secure funding and investment to deliver the scheme.
And, as the demolition of numerous ageing council buildings will be required in order to release the land needed for the redevelopment, councillors will be asked to agree that these works can proceed in due course so that site enabling works can begin.
Currently, more than seven acres of land in the town centre is dominated by Council buildings which were built in the 1970s. They are no longer fit for purpose and do not support the council’s net zero commitments. As the council looks to the future, with ways of working having significantly changed, this is an opportunity for it to consolidate its buildings with one new smaller, more fit for purpose and energy efficient office building for council staff, whilst also unlocking valuable town centre land for development in the process.
If Cabinet agree to press ahead, detailed plans will enable the council to work to secure funding for the project, expected to come from grants and public / private sector investment.
The Council has already appointed a Development Partner, Genr8 Kajima Regeneration, to help to progress the plans.
The plan for Huyton includes, in its first phase, 72 new one and two bedroom apartments for affordable rent; a 130 bedroom quality brand hotel, 85,000sq ft of net zero commercial office space (into which the Council would relocate its headquarters), a new village green – including the relocation of the Cenotaph, a new surface level car park with sustainable transport facilities, a new library and community hub in the heart of the Village Centre and improved public realm and wayfinding across the village centre. Later phases could include up to 150,000sq ft of commercial office space and/or up to a further 300 homes, all helping to increase footfall in the town centre and supporting the local economy.
The Council has already invested in Huyton with 14 buildings benefitting from a contemporary makeover, three buildings demolished (The Venue, the Yorkon Building and the Huyton Hey Office block) with ground investigation works already completed at two of these sites.