Acquisition of Railway Line Planned for Wirral’s £15m Park Development

Wirral Council, which aims to establish a park on a disused railway, may need to acquire the line in segments to avoid incurring an additional financial burden. The council indicated that purchasing the entire Dock Branch rail line, which runs through Birkenhead, could make it financially responsible for the bridges crossing it. The plan is to create a £15m park along this line, which last saw use in the 1980s. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reports that while the decision to buy the line in two sections might increase long-term costs, it could prevent the council from assuming liability for the bridges. A funding request for £14.9m has been submitted by the council to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, with a decision anticipated this month. The council stated its proposal to acquire the southern section of the line to enable progress on the Hind Street Urban Village project, despite the initial strategy being to purchase the northern section first. The Hind Street project recently secured £51m in government funding, allocated for the construction of 1,500 homes over a 15-year period. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.