Liverpool Without Walls: The Exciting Pilot Scheme For Outdoor Bars and Restaurants

Liverpool Without Walls aims to get the city’s bars and restaurants back up and running as soon as possible.

The ongoing Liverpool Without Walls project to re-imagine the city under social distancing, has announced further details today. The joint project is run between Liverpool City Council, Liverpool BID Company – which supports 1,500 city centre businesses, and Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.

It is hoped that the project will give businesses in Liverpool the best chance of being ready to trade as soon as restrictions on hospitality businesses trading are lifted by the Government.

Liverpool Without Walls is designed to provide support to help cafes, bars and restaurants trade outside, by offering a range of support including:

• Bold Street and Castle Street will be closed to traffic throughout the summer. This will allow for restaurants to spill out onto the streets, meaning extra space and seating.
• Bold Sttreet will the pilot for a new scheme of street furniture and ‘parklets’ designed by internationally acclaimed urban architects Arup.
• The new seating and park areas will take over existing parking bays to transform the look of the street and, if successful, could be rolled out to other streets across the city.

  

All independent restaurants in the city can now apply for a grant of up to £4,000 so they can purchase furniture, allowing them to trade outside. The level of grant will depend on the number of additional seats each restaurant can create. There is a limit to this fund and restaurants are urged to take the time to see if they are eligible for the support.

The fee for a new street café licence – around £600 – is being waived for all new applications to ensure businesses don’t have extra costs as they aim to get back on their feet.

Furniture installation on Bold Street will be taking place in early July with the rollout of additional seating expected throughout the summer. Care will also be taken to make sure the changes take account of accessibility and do not adversely impact on, for example, wheelchair users.