Liverpool Source:&nbsp Image by ShutterstockLiverpool City Council has chosen a team led by Levitt Bernstein to draw up a planning framework for the Pumpfields area to the north of the city The team, which also includes architectTurner Works, property consultant Montagu Evans, and engineer Arup, will draw up a visionary, ambitious and deliverable supplementary planning document for the 30ha area, which has been earmarked for major regeneration.Key aims of the planning framework include unlocking the delivery of new homes infrastructure and community facilities in the area, which has suffered from long-term neglect, dereliction and stalled development in recent years.The team will identify opportunities for development; set design guidelines; create a strong policy framework; reuse existing buildings; and improve public spaces, connections and infrastructure.AdvertisementThe plan for Pumpfields comes just a few weeks after Liverpool City Council submitted a bid to the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government to create a new town by expanding the northern fringe of the city into Bootle.The council has worked in collaboration with Sefton Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Homes England and the areas key landowners to set out a 10-year vision for the area.Liverpool City Council cabinet member for growth and development Nick Small said: The Pumpfields area is a vitally important part of our vision to expand out from the city centre into North Liverpool.Its a part of Liverpool thats been overlooked but its time has now come with the emergence of the new town plan. Pumpfields is ripe for the type of regeneration that will redraw and reshape its economic and housing landscape for the rest of this century.I welcome the appointment of this team of placemaking experts. This area deserves a plan that befits our ambitions to grow the city and to knit the Commercial District through to Ten Streets and Liverpool Waters. The vision is to build a place where people can live, work, and play. We want to create a community where everyone feels at home.AdvertisementLevitt Bernstein director Jo McCafferty said: We are absolutely delighted to have won this vital commission to work with Liverpool City Council and the Pumpfields and Lime Kilns community to develop a groundbreaking and deliverable vision for such a strategic neighbourhood in Liverpool North.A vision which reactivates this key quarter in Liverpool, to stitch it back into the wider area, reintroduces crucial connections to the city centre and supports site-specific, mixed-use development and reuses heritage buildings and structures, is absolutely at the heart of this project.The appointment comes almost four years after UNESCO stripped Liverpools nearby waterfront of its prized World Heritage Site status due to irreversible damage caused by new development.It also comes a year and half after the council announced the selection of Metropolitan Workshop and shedkm to draw up housing-led plans for its famous waterfront Festival Gardens. In October, the local authority announced a search for a development partner to transform the 11ha site, which is just 5km from the city centre.In 2023, Liverpool City Council launched a search for a consultant to draw up a new waterfront strategy. The local authority also held a recruitment for a consultant to draw up a residential design guide that promotes sustainable and inclusive high-quality design for all new residential development within Liverpool.Liverpool is expecting a population increase of more than 30,000 people in the next 10 years, which will require the delivery of more than 13,000 new homes. In June 2024, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority launched a search for consultants for feasibility and preliminary design work on a series of small missing link upgrades to its strategic cycling and walking network.2025-02-04Merlin Fulchercomment and share