A REPORT which recommends focusing efforts to improve shopping in Wirral on a scheme which has not yet received planning permission has come under fire.

The “health check” for each of Wirral’s eight key town centres and the 14 “suburban centres” will be presented to the borough’s ruling cabinet this week.

However, the preferred option put forward to improve retail business in the borough is to focus on Peel’s proposed £4.5bn Wirral Waters plan for Birkenhead docks, for which the outline planning application was only submitted just before Christmas, and is expected to be decades in development.

The report rules out trying to disperse growth across all five town centres (Birkenhead, Liscard, Heswall, West Kirby and Moreton) saying they are unlikely to be able to deliver the necessary floorspace.

Federation of Small Businesses Wirral Branch Chairman, Paul Molyneux, called for “more thought” to be given to allow these areas to compete “with the dominance of supermarkets and out of town developments”.

He said: “To focus on Wirral Waters as perhaps the only viable way forward overlooks the significant contribution small retailers make, a contribution that with the right support and investment can only grow.”