Work on the long-anticipated redevelopment of Kirkby town centre will finally begin in December.
Knowsley Council and developers St Modwen have agreed terms that will see a new Morrisons built in the town centre along with a cinema, shops and restaurants.
After decades of promised redevelopments that led nowhere, the council stepped in in May to buy the town centre from St Modwen for an as-yet undisclosed sum in order to kick-start Kirkby’s regeneration.
At the time, council leader Graham Morgan said residents had “waited too long” for work to begin.
Under the terms of the deal, reported by Place North West, Knowsley Council will own the town centre but St Modwen will manage the delivery of the development with its contractor, GMI.
St Modwen has also been named as the council’s partner for a new leisure scheme on the site of the old library and Reel has been lined up to operate the new cinema.
Planning permission for the development is already in place, with St Modwen’s proposals gaining the council’s approval in 2017, two years after it bought the site from Tesco for £36 million.
The developer then undertook some demolition work, but work has since stalled provoking anger from residents left without amenities and forced to travel out of town to buy basic goods.
Following the council’s announcement that it would take over the development, some residents have remained frustrated at an apparent lack of progress.
However, the council said it was carrying out extensive legal due diligence before finalising the deal, which involved the takeover of 100 properties and 12.4 acres of land.
The council told Place North West it “had no option but to proceed” with the deal, “bound by the position of St Modwen which has existing exclusive rights over the sites, to ensure that the development is carried out without further delay which would be likely to result in detriment to the local area and local economy.
The council added: “There is no other site of equivalent scale in the town centre that can be delivered in the same timeframe at the same cost whether by private acquisition or by utilising CPO powers.
“There would be little benefit in the council undertaking such a development from scratch in an alternative area as any new scheme would fail through competition with the current site.”
St Modwen said it had no further details to add.
