Atlantic Gateway
PEEL Holdings has dropped plans to create a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for its Atlantic Gateway scheme.
The group, which owns the Port of Liverpool and still has a 35% share in Liverpool John Lennon Airport, saw an LEP – which will replace regional development agencies – as the best way to advance its development plans along the Manchester Ship Canal from Salford to Liverpool which could deliver 130,000 new jobs and £75bn of private investment.
But after talks with local authority leaders behind LEP proposals for Liverpool, Greater Manchester and Cheshire and Warrington, Peel has agreed to the formation of a “special delivery vehicle” to promote the Atlantic Gateway which will be accountable to the three LEPs and which is likely to include representatives from each of the three LEPs and key private sector interests.
Peel owner and founder John Whittaker said he was pleased the leaders of the three sub-regional LEPs had endorsed the concept of promoting the Atlantic Gateway programme.
