New Chinatown site is a 'disgrace' with rats and litter say furious residents

Residents living near the stalled New Chinatown scheme in Liverpool say the abandoned development site is making their lives a misery by attracting rats and litter.

The stunning £200m New Chinatown scheme, off Great George Street, would have included hundreds of homes as well as shops and restaurants. It attracted many investors from Hong Kong and China.

But building work on the site has been stalled for a year after contractor Bilt collapsed and developer North Point Global (NPG) vowed to pull out of Liverpool.

China Town Development Company (CDC), NPG’s sister company, is in dispute with Liverpool Council over the future of the site. CDC says it wants to sell New Chinatown, but the council wants to take back control of the site itself – with more court battles soon due.

Irene Lloyd-Jones, 69, who has lived in the Chinatown area for 65 years, says she and other residents are angry at the state of the site.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: LIVERPOOL ECHO

LIVERPOOL ECHO

NPG says it will respond to her concerns and is working to maintain the site.

And it says New Chinatown could soon be sold to another developer.

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When the ECHO visited, there was damage to the fences facing Grenville and Cookson Streets, exposing the rubble-strewn building site and part-built building beyond.

Irene said: “You feel ashamed to be living round here, and I’ve been living here all my life.

“It looks bad when visitors come to take a picture of the cathedral.

“And rats – we’ve had the council out three times to deal with them. We’ve never had rats before.

“There have been a lot of kids. There were three on bikes in there a few months ago, and then somebody else was throwing bricks.

“This whole area needs to be fenced off again, properly.

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“It’s a disgrace. The road is dreadful.”

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: LIVERPOOL ECHO

LIVERPOOL ECHO

Irene showed the ECHO where a settee had been dumped over the fence and pointed out the unfinished concrete structure, which has been graffitied in parts and which she says has sometimes been used as a shelter by rough sleepers.

She said: “That’s part of the underground car park. That’s as far as the builders got.”

Another resident who spoke to the ECHO but did not want to be named said: “I don’t think anything is going to happen here.”

After the ECHO contacted NPG on Friday afternoon, the company vowed to send a contractor to fix the fences.

Samuel Beilin, a consultant for NPG, said: “We are aware from a telephone call from a neighbour this morning that recent high winds have blown down some of the hoarding/fencing at Chinatown. NPG have organised contractors to repair these either this weekend or on Monday.

“There has never been a previous report of vermin on the site but I will ask that the Health and Safety contractor investigate this on Monday.

“There has been a problem with youths and homeless people trespassing on to the site. Each time NPG receive a report of this they send security and contractors to clear the site and repair the damage but it is difficult to manage.”

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Late last year, CDC won a court battle with Liverpool council over New Chinatown.

The council, which owns the land on which New Chinatown would be built, said CDC owed it £950,000 and wants to reclaim the leases to the site.

A judge at the High Court in Manchester ruled that the council could not wind up CDC over the debt as it was part of a wider legal battle.

But the court battles will continue. CDC says its next case against the council over the terms of its leases “will likely be heard in the latter part of 2018 early 2019”, while the council is also due to launch its own legal bid to take control of New Chinatown.

And Mr Beilin added: “In respect of the property NPG are in negotiations for the disposal of the Chinatown Company which we will be concluded very shortly and a formal announcement will follow in due course.”

A council spokesman said the state of the site and its fences was the responsibility of the developer and not the council.