The owners of two stalled and derelict housing estates in Knowsley could be given a final deadline to get them finished in an unusual move by the local authority.
The sites at Kenbury Avenue in Kirkby and Lyme Grove in Huyton have been left partially built, attracting fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.
The plots are owned by Liverpool Community Homes PLC, which is in turn owned by Orcego Home Solutions Ltd, a company that has been in administration since November 2022.
Knowsley Council’s planning committee is meeting next week to consider issuing notices to complete on the developer – orders which have to receive approval from the Secretary of State giving a timeline by which work must be completed.
READ MORE: The day Connor Chapman refused to come into court during his murder trial
Failure to comply with the notices could result in penalties or even repossession of the sites.
Completion notices are seldom issued by local authorities and often only as a last resort when other options to encourage a development to be completed have been exhausted.
Knowsley Council has already made multiple attempts to get issues resolved at the sites.
In May, the council issued an enforcement notice in relation to Kenbury Avenue amid ongoing concerns over safety, security, rubbish being dumped and vandalism.
Work started on the site in 2020 after planning permission was granted by the planning inspectorate to developer Samuel Beilin and Partners. Permission to build on the site had previously been refused by Knowsley Council in 2017 but this was overturned on appeal.
When the planning application was submitted, the land was owned by Samuel Beilin’s company Leo Properties Ltd although Land Registry records show it was previously owned by developer Peter McInnes, who acquired it from Knowsley Council in 2011. The land was later acquired by Liverpool Community Homes Plc.
In a report released in May, the council said that concerns were first raised over the state of the Kenbury Road site in March 2022 after a fence was removed, leading to flytipping which was reported to the council’s environmental health team.
The report noted the council tried to “engage with the owners to try to understand why works had stalled, and what the intentions were relating to recommencing, but also to secure improvements to the site, including making it more secure.”
After several attempts to contact the owners, work was carried out to secure the site in April 2022. However, by the following month the fencing had once again been compromised and the site left open.
The report details how the council met remotely with the owners who said they were “committed to securing the site” although this did not happen and instead the situation “worsened.”
The council’s building control team secured one of the units and issued a community protection notice requiring the owner to remove outstanding rubbish at the site and another unfinished development they own at Lyme Grove in Huyton.
After this was not carried out, the council took Liverpool Community Homes to court, and they were fined £14K for non-compliance.
The council said they were contacted in February by a creditor of Liverpool Community Homes PLC, who said that “preparations were underway to recommence development as soon as finances were in place to do so, and legal issues were resolved”, giving a date for the week of February 27.
After the date came and went with no updates, the council attempted to make contact, eventually being told in March that financing had been secured and work would soon commence.
The council were told a contractor would put a new fence up, although in the meantime a fire had been started at the site with more reports of antisocial behaviour, leading the council to issue a planning enforcement notice compelling the owners to take action under risk of further prosecution.
There has been no further update from Knowsley Council since the enforcement notice was issued, although a spokesperson said one would be provided following the closed-door meeting next Thursday.
The council have excluded the press and public under local government rules on the grounds that “Information which reveals that the authority proposes to make an order or direction under any enactment” is set to be discussed and a report issued by the heads of planning and building control has been exempted from publication.
A Knowsley Council spokesperson said: “An update on Kenbury Road and Lyme Grove will be considered by Knowsley Council’s Planning Committee on Thursday 13 July. This report is exempt from publication but an update will be provided following the meeting.”
Don't miss the biggest and breaking stories by signing up to the Echo Daily newsletter here
