New trees planted on Church Street and Lord Street
_tcm81-76003.jpg "Artist's impression of how the trees will be planted in Church Street")
The first batch of new trees have been planted on Church Street and Lord Street.
There will be 33 mature 9m trees planted in total, with seven planted in the first batch and further planting planned for February and March next year.
All the works on Church Street and Lord Street are part of the City Centre Movement Strategy, a £73 million programme of works to improve the roads and public areas of Liverpool City Centre, implemented by partners Liverpool City Council, Merseytravel, and Liverpool Vision.
The £5.5 million package of work on Church Street and Lord Street is funded by Liverpool City Council, the Northwest Development Agency, the European Regional Development Fund, and Cityfocus. It is due to be completed in Summer 2007.
Work is being carried out in sections to minimise disruption to businesses, retailers and pedestrians, and in December, during the busy Christmas shopping period, work will be confined to a section of Church Alley.
The main aim of the scheme is to improve the pedestrian areas with new high quality granite paving, new street lighting, new street 'furniture', (benches and litter bins), as well as the new trees.
Councillor Peter Millea, Executive Member for Regeneration, said:
"Work on Church Street and Lord Street is progressing extremely well, all on programme and on budget. We are working closely with the businesses and retailers to keep disruption to a minimum as we upgrade this vital City Centre retail area.
"We are very pleased to have the first trees planted before Christmas and all of the trees will be in the ground before the end of the planting season in late March."
Liverpool City Council has been liaising with the Business Improvement District in order to ensure all the business needs in the area are met.
Carl Speight, General Manager of the City Centre BID, said:
"We are very happy with the way the City has worked so closely with us on this important scheme. The improvements will upgrade this core retail area and by working together, disruption is being kept to a minimum for our customers during the festive period."