Rayner rejects 3.1m sq ft Warrington industrial after drawn-out appeal 

Langtree and Panattoni have had planning permission for a £300m employment scheme off Junction 20 of the M6 refused by the Planning Inspectorate.

Warrington Council voted to approve the outline application for scheme, known as Six56, in March 2022.

The 3.1m sq ft project was subsequently called in by then-secretary of state Michael Gove, despite the minister having originally decided not to.

Now, two years on, the application has been rejected by secretary of state Angela Rayner due to the harm it would inflict on the Green Belt.

The Planning Inspectorate recognised the need for logistics accommodation in the area but added that demand is “overstated” and based on “subjective opinion rather than robust quantitative data”.

A decision on the development might have been made much earlier had it not been for a challenge against Warrington’s recently adopted local plan from an unnamed party, which went “to the heart of the remaining issues” of the Six56 inquiry, according to the Planning Inspectorate.

The scheme was proposed for land that had been earmarked for release from the Green Belt under Warrington’s draft local plan.

However, the allocation was stripped from the final edition of the plan and will remain as Green Belt.

Langtree said the decision “flies in the face of the government’s stated growth ambitions”.

“We are disappointed but this was always a possibility,” said John Downes, Langtree group chief executive.

“We’ll take a good look at the ruling and assess our options.”