A WORLD-renowned maritime and sea survival training company has chosen the Wirral Waters development as the base for its first state-of-the-art training facility in England.

Stream Marine Training's facility will be located at Tower Quays in Birkenhead.

The Glasgow-based firm says it will offer training and consultancy services to the global maritime, oil and gas, renewables and construction sectors.

Chief executive Martin White said: "We are really proud and excited to bring our portfolio of world-class maritime courses to Wirral Waters.

"This will be our second training hub in the UK, following our base at Glasgow Airport, and we believe it is the perfect location for us.

"Wirral Waters will be a shining example of growth in the maritime sector and we are really excited to play a key role in its regeneration."

Liza Marco, asset manager at Peel Land and Property, said: "The maritime industry is a key growth sector for the Liverpool City Region and we are delighted that Wirral Waters will be home to such a prestigious and high calibre training facility for such important local industries.

"SMT are world leaders in their field offering a wide range of innovative industry accredited and customer-specific courses for a number of safety critical activities and industrial tasks and we are really excited to be working so closely with them on the development of our Maritime Knowledge Hub."

Chris Shirling-Rooke, chief executive of Mersey Maritime, said: "One of the reasons Mersey Maritime was set up more than 15 years ago was to support maritime specific inward investment into the region, and collaboration is at the heart of this.

"We're delighted that SMT will be opening a training facility in Wirral Waters adding to a region that is fast being recognised as a truly national centre of excellence."

At the time Wirral Waters was announced in 2010, it was anticipated that around 27,000 new jobs would be created over the next 30 years along with the complete transformation of derelict land at East Float Docks.

But the project has not been without controversy.

It came in for criticism after appearing to have stalled, prompting calls from Wirral councillor Brian Kenny for progress to be made.

Globe readers have also regularly raised doubts that the scheme will ever really take shape.

Addressing these concerns, Peel confirmed that work had been going on behind the scenes in preparations for a range of projects.