Birkenhead town centre still open for business as transformation continues

Birkenhead town centre is undergoing a transformation aimed at creating a more welcoming, accessible, and sustainable environment for residents, visitors, and shoppers.

The project, which has been running for six months, spans two main areas – Conway Street/Europa Boulevard and Charing Cross/Grange Road/Grange Road West—and aims to make the heart of Birkenhead more attractive and easier to navigate, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.

Funded from a combination of sources, including the UK government’s Future High Street Fund (FHSF) and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Active Travel fund, the programmes will complement the wider Birkenhead regeneration plans that are already underway in the town.

Public works of this scale inevitably bring a degree of disruption and inconvenience to residents, businesses and the wider Wirral public looking to spend time in central Birkenhead for shopping and leisure – however, efforts are always made to minimise this as much as possible.

But the clear message for all is – even while parts of the town centre are currently affected by active construction works and there are some delays to traffic flow, particularly at peak times – Birkenhead town centre remains very much open for business, shopping and leisure.

First phase of Birkenhead Town Centre regeneration completed. Credit: Wirral Council

The contractor on the two schemes, Graham, is committed to maintaining pedestrian access to all businesses within the areas where works are taking place and the council will continue to liaise with all stakeholders to help them to do that as smoothly as possible. In some cases, work will take place outside of trading hours if it involves disrupting access to shop entrances.

While work on pedestrian access is underway, Birkenhead’s public transport and car parking facilities are all functioning as before to get people in and out of the town centre as quickly and conveniently as is possible.

The schemes are a third of the way through the 18-month timescale, with sections due to be completed soon. Progress and improvements will be easier and clearer to see as the project moves along.

The early parts of the preparation and groundworks included removing paving, drainage, street lighting, street furniture and other public realm elements that will be replaced and improved as part of the work.

By the time the schemes come to an end in 2025, people will see a much-improved town centre, which will include three times as many trees as were there before and the planting of thousands of new shrubs and plants.

On Conway Street, between Hemingford Street and Argyle Street, there will be a full replacement of the footpath on the north side of the road and new trees planted. There will also be a segregated cycleway created on the north side of the road with better pedestrian and cycle crossing points along Conway Street.

As part of the same scheme, the existing dual carriageway on Europa Boulevard will be reduced and a new cycleway created using the west side of the carriageway and two-way traffic being introduced on the east side of Europa Boulevard. This part of the scheme also includes replacement of the current paving.

The final part of this scheme will see the Europa Square car park reconfigured to provide a better, safer connection for pedestrians and cyclists between Birkenhead bus station and Conway Park railway station. It will result in the loss of 50 car parking spaces in the car park.

The other scheme is delivering improvements to Grange Road, Grange Road West and Charing Cross. On the busy junction of the three, which also includes Oxton Road, people will see improved pedestrian crossings and new paving installed, while on Grange Road there will also be new paving, as well as new trees planted. There will be an increased focus on preventing vehicles accessing this area outside of loading times.

As part of this scheme, a new one-way arrangement is being trialled on Grange Road West allowing traffic to drive down Grange Road West only in a westerly direction between Charing Cross and Clayton Street. As this part of the programme is a trial, residents will be able to provide feedback on its effectiveness before any decision is made as to whether the change will be made permanent.