The vacant Blue Anchor pub on Market Street could be demolished and replaced with a convenience store and flats if plans submitted to Wirral Council are approved.
The Co-op group has submitted plans (see here) to demolish the Blue Anchor and replace the building with a ground-floor convenience store and 8 2-bedroom flats within a 3-storey building. It has been rumoured for some time that the empty, recently boarded-up pub (pictured above) would be redeveloped.
As detailed in the planning documents the existing Co-op store will relocate:
It is expected that the retail unit will be operated as a Co-op local convenience store, open seven days a week from early morning until late evening. It will replace the existing Co-op store at The Row on Market St, 200m to the south, which is constrained and has inadequate off-street servicing and customer parking facilities. The existing store will be marketed for lease to an appropriate new tenant.
Parking for 25 vehicles, some of which will be private parking for residents, will be made available to left-hand side of the new building:
The documents also state:
Land at the rear, fronting onto Elm Terrace next to the Scout Hut has always belonged to the pub, and has been transferred in title to the current owners. This application proposes no development of this land, and there will be no means of access for customers, staff or residents to Elm Terrace via this route.
As a bit of an historical background this location on Market Street has been redeveloped before. Here’s an older Anchor Inn and here’s another photo also showing the old Lighthouse Inn.
So. An opportunity to replace an eyesore on the Market Street landscape? An unwelcome national retailer creating one new shop but leaving their existing one empty? A chance to create 8 new homes in the centre of Hoylake? Handy parking for Home Bargains customers?
Comments are of course welcome!
Hoylake Community Planning Forum will be reviewing this application against the policies set out in the Hoylake Neighbourhood Plan [HNP] and offering a consultee response to the council as part of the planning process.
One thing of note is that if the COOP were to relocation from their existing store to a redeveloped site of the former Blue Anchor it may mean that the Policy HS3. could be enacted
Policy HS3 designates an area around The Row defined in the HNP as a potential site for a comprehensive redevelopment scheme, or individual proposals, delivered as part of a phased masterplan approach. to a create a high quality public space that would be well-integrated into the key shopping area.
The aspiration being to form a ‘Town Square’ for Hoylake
This redevelop will probably be touched upon at the upcoming Hoylake Community Planning Forum / Hoylake Vision meeting on Thursday 6th July at 7pm at Hope Church (Hoylake Chapel).
This meeting is in response to the ‘Improving the High Street‘ section of the 2011 “What’s Your Vision” survey, in which 54% of respondents felt that higher quality shopfront design was a high priority
However the examiner required further and more detailed consultation before a policy could be included in the HNP. So this meeting is our first step towards that for the 2020 version of the HNP
Come along and let us know what you think
Would a co-ordinated programme of better shopfront design help increase footfall?
Would landlords and businesses work together?
What about shopfront security issues?
What can be done about visual ‘clutter’ and poor quality signage?
Come along, find out more, and have your say.
Thursday 6th July at 7pm at Hope Church (Hoylake Chapel).
For once Wirral Council have actually put up a Notice of Application for Planning on the site.
An A4 yellow paper sign on the lamppost at the middle of the frontage on Market Street.
Usually they just write to the direct neighbours and advertise the application ‘somewhere’
so most locals have no idea a scheme has been proposed that they can review and comment on
Hopefully this notice means more local people are aware of the proposed demolition and redevelopment and will comment on the application
It will be good to see this site tidied up but this design looks like another poorly designed block. Bring back some character!
well at least it is a better more contemporary design than other local recent examples such as
Rocklis Thea
Montrose Court
Cherry Court
Redshanks
Though of course it could be even better…..