A £5.5 billion scheme to regenerate 60 hectares of dock land in Liverpool has been approved by the city councils planning committee.

The approval of the outline application will now be referred to the Government.

Council Leader Joe Anderson said: "The decision to grant planning permission for Liverpool Waters is one of the most significant and far-reaching made in Liverpool’s recent history.

"It is a vote of confidence in a new beginning of a great city.

"The scale of what is being proposed is breath-taking – it represents a five and half billon pound investment to create thousands of jobs, provide new housing and attract new businesses and more visitors to the city. It is a scheme which is unprecedented in its ambition, scope and potential to regenerate a city.

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"Liverpool has to grow and redevelop if we are to thrive and succeed in the future. We do not live in the past, we are not a museum. I care passionately about the future of Liverpool and the opportunities and life chances we give our children. Today’s decision is for future generations. The new investment, businesses and employment opportunities Liverpool waters will bring is the future for our city.

"In arriving at their decision the city council's planning committee considered a very comprehensive report which thoroughly examined all the issues concerned and listened to a number of different presentations from both supporters and objectors and visited the site themselves.

"Everybody – including the committee - is well aware of the concerns about heritage, but we can have the strikingly modern, while retaining our world heritage status. I have never regarded this as being 'either, or'.

"With the safeguards the planning committee has insisted on, we can have Liverpool Waters living comfortably alongside the World Heritage Site.

"If this application had been rejected then we would have been left with huge stretches of derelict dockland cheek-by-jowel with our World Heritage site. Instead we now have the prospect of one of the most ambitious schemes ever seen in this country taking shape – it is one that will transform Liverpool’s fortunes for future generations."

(CD/GK)