"We have previously undertaken extensive public consultation throughout the Wirral to engage the community to our proposals and, overall, have received positive responses to the scheme with over 90% of respondents in favour of redevelopment of New Brighton seafront. Not surprisingly however there were some reservations to certain aspects of the development and their location, such as the supermarket. A further telephone survey was therefore undertaken to discover the depth of this uncertainty which provided us with more favourable detail of those who would use the proposed new food retail and leisure facilities.
We have revisited our masterplan on numerous occasions and there was concerned about certain detail such as the location of the foodstore, car parking, how the new lido could be incorporated into the overall development and most importantly, protection of the sites and buildings from the coastal elements. We have subsequently commissioned Peter Hunter as masterplanner who was responsible for the implementation of the regeneration of Salford Quays in the early 1980's and more recently, Laganside in Belfast which is a major regeneration development consisting of both residential and commercial space.
Having considered all the concerns that we had previously raised, we are now undertaking a feasibility study on moving the focus of our development onto the Marine Lake site and creating a new lake with associated facilities on the former outdoor baths site, having received initial support from New Brighton Steering Group, Wirral MBC and local traders, including Mike Jones Sailing Club. The obvious advantage of this new proposal would be to focus the development more towards the existing businesses such as the existing bars and restaurants, the ten pin bowling alley, the Pavilion Theatre and most importantly, Fort Perch Rock, whilst respecting both its' setting and Grade II listed status. Environmentally, the new setting for the commercial elements of the scheme would be more suited to this location where overtopping and flooding is less frequent and would be more manageable.
We continue our discussions with Howard Mortimer and his colleagues at Wirral MBC with regards to planning and other matters. We anticipate being in a position to provide a further, albeit more localised public consultation in April 2004 (date to be confirmed) with a planning application to follow soon thereafter. The application requires a large amount of supporting material, which includes a Transport Impact Assessment, an Environmental Impact Assessment and a Retail Impact Assessment all of which are either complete or underway."
Andrew Kingsley MRICS
Neptune Developments Ltd
website :
www.neptunedevelopments.co.uk
This is our own consultation exercise especially for the people of New Brighton. Neptune will be sending out a questionnaire to the whole of Wirral in the near future. Please be sure to respond to both. We would appreciate it if you would take the time to fill this in so that we can find out what the people of New Brighton really think. 7,000 will be delivered one to each household in New Brighton
QUESTIONNAIRE and the responses of the 1,100 households who replied.
YES 1043 NO 49 UNSURE 7
YES 416 NO 623 UNSURE 58
The proposed Neptune Development includes several different elements all of which we need to think carefully about.
The main elements are:-
FOR 718 AGAINST 154 UNSURE 13
FOR 956 AGAINST 140 UNSURE 4
FOR 977 AGAINST 97 UNSURE 22
FOR 853 AGAINST 174 UNSURE 32 SOME OF THESE 42
FOR 351 AGAINST 712 UNSURE 35
Without the revenue that this would bring we are told that none of the other things will happen.
FOR 582 AGAINST 477 UNSURE 35