Test drilling starts at former Birkdale Library

Design Use:

The proposal is to erect eleven number detached and semi-detached houses on the site of the former Birkdale Library. The site is currently 76% covered in either hard standing for parking, or built form.

Amount:

The housing marketing in the area is for family houses with 3 or more bedrooms. Our proposals are for six number of 3 bed houses and five number of 4 bed houses with integral garages.

Scale & Massing:

Housing in the area is typically 2 storey, although often with higher than typical floor to floor heights due to much of the housing being Victorian stock.

The proposed houses are traditional family homes of a scale and mass similar to the surrounding properties.

The site layout is determined by a number of factors:

A need to continue the build line of Liverpool Road and address the street, results in a front row of houses with a single access through to the rear of the site.

Interface distances and garden sizes then determine the most efficient layout as a second row parallel to Liverpool Road.

Style:

Liverpool Road has an eclectic mix of architectural styles.

Whilst some elements of the proposed design have been informed by the houses in the local area, the primary architectural driver is an approach which fits into the surrounding.

The local facade materials are typically render and brick thus a palette of render, brick, slate effect roof tiles will be used.

Landscaping:

The site is currently occupied by a single storey flat roof library building and car parking. There are trees in unmanaged soft landscaping to all boundaries. The proposals involve the felling of a number of these trees which are shown on the Proposed Site Plan Drawing L03 and the AIA accompanying this application.