The 150-acre regeneration project lies on the waterfront of the River Mersey and contains offices, including the 55-storey Shanghai Tower; 9,000 homes; a cultural building; hotels; shops; restaurants; leisure facilities, and a cruise liner terminal.
The scheme forms one half of a wider £10bn plan for both sides of the River Mersey. The Wirral Waters element of the scheme was approved by Wirral Council in 2010. In March 2011 the Government established the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone which includes Peel's Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters redevelopment schemes.
Council leader Joe Anderson hailed the decision as "one of the most significant and far-reaching made in Liverpool's recent history".
The scheme will be built on some of the area designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2004. English Heritage and UNESCO have both objected to the scheme. UNESCO has warned that the constructions would leave the site "irreversibly damaged" through a "serious loss of historical authenticity", potentially meaning that the city could be deleted from the world heritage list, the BBC reported).
English Heritage claimed that the Council had "significantly downplayed the adverse impacts of the development on Liverpool's outstanding heritage".
However, Anderson said that "in arriving at their decision the city council's planning committee considered a very comprehensive report which thoroughly examined all the issues concerned and listed to a number of different presentations from both supporters and objectors... with the safeguards the planning committee has insisted on, we can have Liverpool Waters living comfortably alongside the World Heritage Site".
"This is the end of the beginning of a very long journey and partnership with Liverpool said Peel director Lindsey Ashworth. "It's taken five years of hard work to get to this point... the scheme was very carefully discussed by members and quite rightfully the public had their say."
"The people of Liverpool clearly are aware that heritage is a consideration but that it's one of dozens from job creation for local people, through energy efficient environmentally friendly high quality design of buildings to provision of cycle routes," she said.
