A Wirral-based housing association is putting forward proposals to redevelop the former offices of Heap & Partners behind Manor Road Station.
Wirral Methodist Housing Association (WMHA) is a charitable organistion that specialises in providing housing solutions for all types of people. It is proposing to develop the vacant Heap & Partners offices at the bottom of Newton Road subject to planning consent. Architects for the scheme are Port Sunlight based Paddock Johnson Partnership.
The offices, known as Britannia House, have been vacant for 2 years and had an initial guide price of £1m. The buildings were originally used by the Hoylake Laundry Company.
WMHA are proposing the following:
3-Storey Flat Block
This building will contain eleven, two bedroom flats with a further flat being kept aside for use as a social area for residents. WMHA is working with a group of parents of young people with a physical and/or learning disability, called Wirral SILC to help their children to have a housing solution that offers greater independence.
2 Bungalows
Two bungalows are planned that allow for wheelchair access.
2-Storey Flat Block
This building will contain eight, two bedroom flats for elderly residents who may require care and support to enhance their lives.
WMHA has applied for grant funding from the Government through the Homes and Communities Agency. If both funding and planning consent is achieved construction works are expected to start before December 2011 with a target completion date of summer 2013.
Residents near to the development will be able to comment upon the planning application and have their views formally recorded.
Feel free to share your comments on the proposals below.
Gerry Martin says
Seems to me a great idea. Heap & Partners are sucessors to the company of Thomas Brassey who was the Great Victorian Railway developer. A truly great man!
HELEN TICKELL says
I strongly object to the Planning Permission on the grounds that the land should be acquired by the Local Authority for Holy Trinity Primary School. The School is situated on a very small plot with extremely limited outdoor space for the children. The school is more popular than ever with the Local Authority allocating extra children to the school. Surely the present site of Hoose Court which is preparing to be demolished would be a far more appropriate site and would alleviate potential problems to the Heaps Site as this is on a main Road and accessed via Hazel Road.
Dorothy lynch says
This makes absolute sense to me, a really good idea
Stephanie Leather says
I too strongly oppose this. As a resident of Lee Road, we get precious little parking space outside our own homes as it is, and this will only make the problem worse. There will be ambulances up and down the road constantly as well as people visiting the flats. But mainly because it will massively downvalue our homes, and in this recession which is bad enough as it is, the last thing we need is our situation being made worse by further dropping the value of our homes.
Gerry Martin says
Oh dear Given the low level residental plans and the size of the site there will be no effect on local parking. Why would house values fall? Of course Lee Road has little parking space – that is because it was built before the idea that every house had one or two cars! You can live without a car I
have done so for the past 15 years!
diane hind says
My parents lived in Manor Road, for a long time they and the people who lived in the cul de sac part of Manor Road and also in Newton Road and Lee Road used to sign a petition against Manweb enlarging the substation, could be the case that the electricity board could re applyand get planning permission for it, which asks the question , which would the residents prefer ?? a substation or a place for handicapped people to live independantly of their parents.
The substation would devalue houses more than a home for handicapped.
I take it that there would be parking spaces in the grounds for the staff so therefore Lee Road wouldn’t have the problem of more cars parking, Newton Rd ,Manor Rd and Lee Rd in fact any Road in Hoylake now is bad for parking unless you have the luxury of a driveway.
Don’t forget the Education Authority sold of the Junior school on the grounds that it was unsafe and out of date, the new owners promplty converted it to flats, and the education authority combined the juniors and infants school into one building, thus making the school they have now way to small for its pupils. The education authority could of knocked down that building and built a new school but chose not to.
If the council bought the land would they use it for the school or would they build flats/houses on it ??
As for ambulances going up and down, who says there will be? when Heaps was there there were lorries and vans driving up and down Lee Rd and Newton Rd no one objected to those.
Richard says
I sympathise I guess if you are disabled and you struggle to get your car parked right outside. But if you’re not, try the novel thing we do and park it as near as you can and walk a little bit. If it’s outside someone else’s house, they could do the same. I don’t give a monkey’s if someone’s car is outside my house. It’s all a part of that decent community spirit of give and take where things at the end of the day even themselves out.
helen carr says
does anyone know anything about a rescue in the dee on January 9th 1943 when four airmen had crashed their aeroplane. They had been adrift for 18 hours before the lifeboat ‘Oldham’ rescued them. I would love to know what kind of aeroplane it was and if the four men survived Helen Carr.