SIGNIFICANT work to transform Liverpool’s derelict former International Garden Festival site is unlikely to start for another 12 to 18 months, despite receiving permission from Whitehall yesterday.

The credit crunch may also lead to a change to the phasing of the £250m scheme, which includes 1,308 apartments and 66 town houses on the site.

Planning practicalities and the year’s delay brought on by a public inquiry means that a lot remains to be done behind the scenes before work on the Otterspool site can start.

Last night, the Langtree McLean partnership insisted their first priority was to deliver a high-quality 56-acre park, including the restoration of the Japanese and Chinese Gardens, as previously promised.

The developers also said they were confident of the scheme’s success.

Campaigners from Save the Festival Gardens said they were not surprised by the result of the planning inquiry, and would be meeting to discuss the group’s options.

Yesterday, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears approved planning permission given by Liverpool City Council for the project following a public inquiry which ended in January.

Liverpool council and Langtree McLean will now sit down to agree a timetable for work to start.

Frank Reil, group managing director of David McLean Holdings, said: “We have got to re-evaluate the current position of the market. We don’t see this as a short-term scheme, but as a long-term scheme, as you don’t develop a project like this overnight.”

He said there was still a lot of work to do on the detailed planning aspect of the scheme.

It had been hoped that work might start on site this year, but that now seems impossible.