New Ferry is set to be transformed five years after an explosion which devastated the Wirral town.
On March 25, 2017, Pascal Blasio deliberately blew-up his own furniture store. The blast injured 81 people and devastated the town.
Wirral Council has been criticised for being slow to step in and try to revive New Ferry since then, but there is now a real sense of momentum among council officers who feel things are about to move forward at pace. Neil Mitchell, a project manager in Wirral Council’s Special Projects Team, said: “Within three years New Ferry will look completely different.”
READ MORE: More than 70 new homes coming to area devastated by gas explosion
The council has £500,000 from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, plus £3.2m from the government’s Future High Streets Fund and money from its own capital account, meaning the money is not being taken from day-to-day services, to throw at the town. The exact plans are yet to be finalised but possibly around 100 homes will be built at three sites in the town centre, including the site of the explosion itself.
Regenda, the developer Wirral Council has employed to deliver the New Ferry project, is set to apply for planning permission this summer, but the council wants the homes to be a mix of social housing and housing on the open market.
An exciting part of the council’s plan is its purchase of the old Co-op store on New Chester Road. It is expected the site will be used as part of the mainly residential plans for the town, but together with the council’s plans to buy some of the other empty shops near the Co-op it is hoped the New Ferry of the future will feature far fewer empty shops.
But the council has not given up on retail growth creating a buzz in New Ferry once again. On this, Mr Mitchell said: “There’s a farmers market nearby that people come to from many other towns, but they don’t stay because there’s nothing to do.”
Rather than building lots of new retail space, the council wants to see some of the currently boarded up shops reopened. It wants to see shops such as a greengrocers and a butchers return and help the town grow.
Alan Evans, Wirral Council’s director of regeneration, said people are starting to believe the council can deliver now. He said while there may have been people wondering what would happen when Birkenhead’s Milton Pavements was knocked down, everyone can see a new building being developed straight away.
In New Ferry, he felt the right move was to bring more residential space into the town centre to help grow the local customer base for the shops, creating more footfall and a more vibrant area.
While the exact plans for the former Co-op are far from being finalised, Mr Evans said: “We could have sold it to Lidl, they would have paid a premium, but that’s not what we want here. It is about strategic planning, we don’t want to take the heart out of the town.”
