It has been confirmed that Wirral Council are to redistribute funding between projects \u2013 this includes the removal of at least \u00a33 million which had previously been allocated to the renovation of the Wirral Transport Museum. The decision to change development projects to support in their area came in a behind closed doors meeting, although the results were soon leaked by a local Green Councillor.<\/p>\n
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It had previously been announced that \u00a34.5 million was being allocated towards a major redevelopment of the Transport Museum which is located at Taylor Street and has been closed since April 2023. This included the heritage tramway with the original decision being made following a visit by the ORR.<\/p>\n
Big Heritage \u2013 a CIC who operate a number of historic tourist attractions across Merseyside \u2013 were named as operator of the Transport Museum (and by its connection the tramway) in December 2023 and came forward with grand plans to redevelop the museum, creating extra display space and concentrating on the complete story of transport in Birkenhead. A lot of this depended on the funding, which had seemingly been confirmed in 2024 and Big Heritage had previously said their plans would be revealed early this year. A revised business case had been submitted by Big Heritage in January 2025 and it seems that this may have caused in some way a change of plan by the Council.<\/p>\n
But now that has all changed with Wirral Council voting (8 to 3 in favour) of redistributing their various funding. The \u00a34.5 million has now been changed to \u00a31.5 million, but only if a revised business case is submitted (some reports suggest this has to be done by 23rd<\/sup> April or the money will be distributed elsewhere). Councillors expressed doubts the project would be completed in time for the area to qualify for the government funding, whilst also requesting extensions for other projects.<\/p>\n Recriminations have now begun with Big Heritage quoted as saying they didn\u2019t ask for the \u00a31.5 million and would not be accepting this offer. Big Heritage Founder and Managing Director, Dean Paton, made a passionate speech to councillors accusing them of effectively killing off the Transport Museum. Its not clear where Big Heritage will go now with their plans, or even if they will continue to progress with them at all.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just the Transport Museum which has recently seen funding removed with a housing development at Conway Park losing \u00a32 million and other projects at Woodside Ferry Village and Birkenhead Priory\u00a0 seeing over \u00a31 million redistributed.<\/p>\n The money is being diverted to other projects including improvements to Birkenhead Town Centre, the creation of a new Birkenhead Market and redevelopment of New Ferry High Street.<\/p>\n The Transport Museum currently remains home to several trams. That no longer includes the three former Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society trams – Birkenhead 20<\/strong>, Wallasey 78<\/strong> and Liverpool 762<\/strong> \u2013 which are being moved to Crich following a decision for their transfer due to the situation at the Transport Museum. This will leave the MTPS\u2019s Warrington 28<\/strong> still in situ along with others such as Hong Kong pair 69<\/strong> and 70<\/strong> (owned by Wirral Council) and Liverpool 245<\/strong> (owned by Liverpool City Museums). The MTPS have already moved their horse trams to Hooton Park (Liverpool 43<\/strong> and Douglas Bay Horse Tramway cars 11<\/strong> and 47<\/strong>). Lisbon 730<\/strong>\u2019s ownership was transferred to Beamish in January 2024 with the tram moving to the northeast at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It has been confirmed that Wirral Council are to redistribute funding between projects \u2013 this includes the removal of at least \u00a33 million which had previously been allocated to the renovation of the Wirral Transport Museum. The decision to change … Continue reading