Boost for Baltic train station bid

A masterplan which could soon lead to Liverpool’s first new train station and public park of the 21st century has been endorsed.The council’s Cabinet has approved the draft Baltic Triangle Spatial Regeneration Framework (SRF), which has been developed over the past 12 months to guide the historic area’s future development.Once a major warehouse and production hub, the space has undergone a £250m boom since its first development framework was created in 2007.Fuelled by a successful creative and digital sector, it is now home to more than 500 businesses employing more than 3,000 staff.It has also housed a doubling in its population since 2010.The masterplan, led by LDA Design, sets out guidelines on the remaining available land to balance the needs of business growth and residential development.Key recommendations include supporting a new rail station at St James Street, establishing Baltic Park, creating green corridors, encouraging a balanced mix of housing types and homes for families, and ensuring buildings have active ground floor uses.Four areas of change have also been identified, those being the police HQ and Heaps Mill, the Wapping Goods Terminal, Flint Street South, and Cains Brewery Village and Hill Street Corridor.The SRF will now be used in guiding planning applications in the area.