SOUTHPORT
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01704 829 550 24 October 2018
Vol 25 l Issue 43
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£35M PLAN FOR FORMER DEAF SCHOOL BUILDING Scheme will help secure iconic site’s removal from council’s ‘at risk’ register
PLANS for a £35million transformation of Southport’s ‘iconic’ former Birkdale School for Hearing Impaired Children have been given the go-ahead. In April 2017, Octopus Healthcare, an investor in healthcare facilities, submitted a proposal to redevelop the Grade II property on Lancaster Road in Birkdale. The proposal included the conversion and remodelling of the listed school building, with extensive repair and restoration of lost features and construction of communal facilities, extra care accommodation and improvements to the grounds. The company aim to install 113 extra care apartments and associated facilities including a bistro, residents’ lounge, library and hair and beauty salon, as well as providing on-site care. The site was originally opened in 1901 as Terra Nova, a private boarding school, before it became the school for the partially hearing in 1948. It remained as such until 2003 when it was sold to developers and has remained vacant ever since. The building was made a grade II listed building in 1999. Sefton Council approved the plans at their planning committee meeting at Bootle Town Hall on Wednesday, October 17. Cllr Daren Veidman, Sefton Council's cabinet member for planning and building control, said: “We have worked extremely hard to secure a sustainable and sensitive use for the former school and this application will safeguard such an iconic building in our wonderful borough. “The successful application will seek to secure the building’s removal from the council’s listed buildings ‘at risk’ register while also contributing to the removal of West Birkdale conservation area from
Youngsters join Blue Peter party
Report by Danielle Thompson the national ‘at risk’ register. We look forward to working closely with Octopus Healthcare as they conserve, restore and develop this fantastic site.” Richard Dooley, development director at Octopus Healthcare, added: “Our development team have had a busy 18 months working with Sefton Council to get this approval over the line. “Being able to breathe new life into this iconic building and really giving it a purpose for the next 100 years is a great achievement. The environment we are trying to create will be a real testament to the future of elderly care.”
The Grade II listed building will be transformed
Laura wows audiences in West End production
Laura Tyrer
INSIDE THIS WEEK...
SOUTHPORT actress, singer and dancer, Laura Tyrer, has been wowing audiences in London’s West End as Velma Kelly in Chicago the Musical at the Phoenix Theatre. Her starring role finished just last Saturday but Laura will be making another appearance this time on prime time ITV programme ‘The Big Audition -
to reveal how she landed the part. In Chicago Laura played opposite Duncan James of Blue fame and Alexandra Burke as Roxie Hart. Laura began her acting dream in Southport at the Loretto Bamber Dance School and in shows at the Little Theatre with the SDC. Continued inside
Town set for Halloween celebrations CROSSWORD See Page 28
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