It’s been empty for 20 years but has now been earmarked for 249 homes
The land was previously used for oil storage(Image: Google Street View)
A former Ministry of Defence site on the Wirral has been sold off to a development company. The site has existing planning permission for 249 homes linked to a further 217 homes on the Riverside Business Park next door.
It has not been made public how much money will be generated by the sale but the site has been valued above £500,000. However a December report ahead of a Wirral Council Policy and Resources Committee meeting said the site’s sale alongside three other properties would generate £7.7m for the local authority.
Money from the sale will add towards a total of £13,255,000 generated by the local authority from getting rid of land and buildings it owns. This will be used to help pay off a government loan after the council requested emergency government funding in 2021 and 2022.
The plan to sell off the site off Old Hall Road in Bromborough was approved by councillors in March 2023 and it was later put on the market in January 2024. On December 20 2024, Wirral Council’s director of regeneration Marcus Shaw agreed to enter into a contract with Northstone Development Limited.
Northstone is a Manchester-based development firm founded in 2018 that designs and builds homes in the north west of England and forms part of Peel Group. According to its website, “it strives to create exceptional spaces, stylish environments and communities where families will thrive.”
Plans for 249 homes put forward by the council on an old MOD site in Bromborough(Image: Wirral Council)
According to a Wirral Council report, 13 bids were received after the land was put up for sale but Lambert Smith Hampton, the council’s outsourced property consultant, selected Northstone as the preferred bidder and the council said their bid “reflects market value for the site.” The offer put forward by Northstone is conditional subject to a number of planning issues being sorted to allow the development to go ahead.
However as the site was bought by the council using government funding, this will be clawed back from any final sale price. The site has been vacant for more than 20 years with no buildings on the site and previously used as a fuel storage facility by the Ministry of Defence.
The land has been vacant for 20 years(Image: Google Street View)
Planning permission for the site was unanimously approved in November 2022 which is linked to plans for 466 homes in the nearby area. Concerns had been raised by local councillors about the application but it was also described as an “exciting step forward for both of the sites” and a “major regeneration and planning opportunity.”
A Housing Trajectory published in September 2024 as part of the council’s Local Plan suggests the first homes will be finished by March 2026 on both sites. Work on all 249 homes is expected to be finished by 2032.