Parkside Colliery goes to Secretary of State
St Helens Council has approved Langtree’s outline planning application for a 1m sq ft business park at the 230-acre former Parkside Colliery.
Due to the scale of the scheme, the application has been recommended for sign-off by the Secretary of State.
Phase one of construction at Newton-le-Willows is set to begin in 2021, once the Secretary of State has reviewed the application, and is due for completion in mid 2022.
Overall there are to be three major units in the first phase. The first, on the south west of the site, would be 560,000 sq ft. The second, on the south east of the site, would total 232,000 sq ft, while the third on the north of the site, would total 206,000 sq ft.
The application forms part of a wider proposal for works across the Parkside area, which also crosses into Warrington. An application for a £38m link road, which cuts across 93 acres of Warrington’s Green Belt, would connect the Parkside Colliery to the motorway, has also been submitted and is expected to gain approval at Warrington’s planning committee this week.
The link road and the Parkside Colliery site are the first phases of a larger scheme of 505-acres, around the junction to the east and west of the site.
John Downes, chairman of Parkside Regeneration, the joint venture between Langtree and St Helens, said: “The scheme will now go before the Secretary of State for final approval.
“We would hope the government see as clearly as we do the scheme’s value in terms of job creation, the reuse of a key brownfield site and the work that we have been doing with our partners to ensure a job-ready local workforce that can benefit from the thousands of new positions the completed scheme will deliver.
“It will deliver more than £2m of new rates income each year for the local authority to invest in key public services. The boost to the St Helens economy will be even more significant, with an additional £80m a year of new output. Parkside is a genuine game-changer in an area in need of one.
“We have taken a cautious approach to our employment forecasts, but even with that we are anticipating 1,330 end-user jobs in this first phase and 457 construction jobs.”
The scheme was designed by Fletcher Rae Architects, with planning consultancy from Spawforths. Parkside Regeneration is the developer.
Click any image to enlarge
- A decision on the called-in Parkside Colliery scheme in St Helens is due soon
- The scheme was designed by Fletcher Rae. Credit: via Merrion Strategy
Great news. Can’t think of a better use for a former coal mine. Merseyside still needs new jobs and the recent growth announced at the port of Liverpool means we need more warehousing and groupage space. An easy win for the secretary of state, this: ‘look, we’re backing the North.’
By Sceptical
What a disaster. Chewing up a huge chunk of Green Belt (the vast majority of the site is also greenfield) for a few 100 warehouse jobs that will help cheap Chinese imports put more st helens workers out of work. The standard of debate was poor, and some councillors just don’t understand climate change. I don’t blame St helens. They are desperate and genuinely think this is the best they can do. Maybe they are right. This is a cry for help from a forgotten town.
By Peter Black
Just get on and create jobs
By Williamsmith
I see their is no memorial too the miners at bottom of the pit lane typical
By D cunliffe
Another done deal by St Helens Council. They are the applicant and as one of the objectors commented, they are marking their own homework.
By Devils advocate