Huge towers set to transform Liverpool skyline

Liverpool’s skyline is set to change dramatically with councillors on the verge of approving plans to build a host of huge towers across the northern edge of the city centre.The city council’s planning committee is due to consider a range of residential schemes at its next meeting on Tuesday (18 April 2017).Among the items up for discussion is Elliot Group’s £250m triple towers project (pictured above) on land at the junction of Leeds Street and Lanyork Road near Liverpool’s commercial district. The Liverpool-based company claims that the Falconer Chester Hall-designed Infinity scheme would be the city’s largest residential development.The proposed towers would be 39, 33 and 27 storeys high. The tallest building would reach 436 ft above sea level, offering views to Snowdonia and the Lake District, and there would be 1,002 apartments in total as well as a triple-height luxury spa, gym and pool alongside more than 10,000 sq ft of commercial space.If permission is granted, work is scheduled to start onsite in the autumn of 2017 with completion due in the autumn of 2019.Ahead of the planning meeting, a report prepared by planning officers has recommended that the scheme should be approved.Also on the agenda is an application to build a £35m skyscraper rising 27 storeys high and offering 168 private rented sector apartments at 122 Old Hall Street within the commercial district. The scheme would be known as Ovatus 1 and complement a separate 48-storey development called Ovatus 2, which is lined up to become Liverpool’s tallest skyscraper, that forms the subject of a separate planning application.Ovatus 1 is being brought forward by Prospect Capital and Wilcocks & Wilcocks.The application has attracted an objection from Shop Direct Group, which owns Littlewoods.co.uk and Very.co.uk. The retailer said that its data centre next to the application site is vital to the online operational activities of the group and that any disruption to the power and data lines beneath Back Leeds Street would be disastrous to its business.However, planning officers have decided that specific construction impacts that could affect the functioning of the Shop Direct’s data centre are best discussed between the developer and the group. They have recommended that the application should be approved, with a standard condition relating to construction management imposed so that the council can require that reasonable steps are taken to address the general impacts of construction works on the surrounding environment.Meanwhile, a full planning application (pictured) by NR Scorpio to create a nine-storey, an 11-storey and a 19-storey block offering 381 apartments in total on land to the west of the A59 Scotland Road just to the north of the commercial district will be considered. It represents a scaled-up resubmission of an earlier proposal to develop a seven-storey, a nine-storey and a 15-storey block with 318 apartments that was approved in May 2016.Councillors have been advised to approve the application. Elsewhere in the city region, the planning committee will consider a full planning application by Signature Living to transform the Bankfield Centre, a former City of Liverpool College site on Bankfield Road in West Derby. It is proposing to create 98 apartments, comprising a mix of one- and two-bed properties, as well as a concierge service and a gym.Signature Living’s proposals have also been recommended for approval.