Castle Street and Bold Street ‘pedestrians only’ initiative to be extended

In one of the first projects of its kind in the country, Liverpool City Council launched a £450,000 fund in June 2020 to help local small to medium sized businesses redesign outdoor spaces and turn them into high quality, covered seating areas – making up for the internal space they lost as a result of social distancing restrictions.

The programme has seen Bold Street closed to traffic across the summer and attractive wooden parklets installed along the road, transforming the area, which has proved to be hugely popular with businesses and visitors. Part of Castle Street has also been closed to traffic, enabling venues to spill out onto the streets. Lark Lane in South Liverpool also changed to a one way system so that venues can use the pavement for overspill.

This initiative formed part of a wider recovery plan which has also seen a special fund created aimed at the city’s arts organisations and freelance community to bring culture to the streets of Liverpool. Applications are still open for this and more information can be found on the Culture Liverpool website.

The money for Liverpool Without Walls is coming from existing budgets, by repurposing capital spending to give businesses practical support for the Covid-19 emergency and alleviate the impact on the local economy.

Following the first lockdown last year, the city council issued more than 160 licences to venues across the city, allowing them to reopen their doors to customers once again.

Liverpool’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Visitor Economy, Councillor Harry Doyle, said: “Last year, we were proud to be one of the first cities to introduce a scheme which gave a lifeline to our hard hit hospitality sector.

“The Liverpool Without Walls initiative enabled venues to operate outdoors and it generated £8.9 million of income for businesses that wouldn’t have otherwise been delivered.

“This sector is hugely important to the city and we are pleased to say we are in the process of renewing pavement licenses to enable outlets to continue to welcome customers with their outdoor model.”