£80m first phase of Parkside regeneration up for approval
The reserved matters planning application for the first phase of the Parkside regeneration project will go before planners at St Helens Borough Council tomorrow (March 12), with approval recommended by planning officers.
If approved, it will herald the start of the scheme in earnest.
The £80m first phase is anticipated to create 1,330 jobs and will benefit from the construction of the £40m Parkside Link Road, which connects the site to Junction 22 of the M6 motorway. Once completed, phase one is expected to generate more than £2.2m in annual rates income for St Helens Council and add more than £80m of output per annum to the borough’s economy.
Parkside Regeneration chairman, John Downes, said: “This is the hard-working, technical end of the process covering a myriad of details.
“There has been a huge amount of work to reach this point. If permission is granted, then it starts the firing gun on the next stage of design and the tendering process for construction of the first phase.”
The scheme was granted outline consent following a public inquiry in November 2021 for up to 93,000 sq m of employment space.
A ‘reserved matters’ planning application was submitted in May 2023 which seeks approval for the scheme’s detailed design for the necessary infrastructure, including plot levels and entrances. It also covers the detail of the first three units in Phase 1, comprising a total of around 73,000 sq m.
The scheme, a joint venture between St Helens Borough Council and developer Langtree, will ultimately see up to 250,000 sq m of logistics and advanced manufacturing space developed on the former colliery site.
Cllr Kate Groucutt, St Helens Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy, Skills and Business, said: “Parkside will be a game-changing development for our borough, bringing jobs and opportunity to Newton-le-Willows and beyond.
“As a Freeport site we hope it will attract national and even international interest from firms hoping to occupy the units.
“This application is a key milestone for the partnership and follows extensive consultation and engagement with the community.”
She added: “A guiding principle is that we must deliver as much social value as possible and so we have been working hard behind the scenes to identify local companies that can participate in the site’s construction. We also want to ensure that as many of the borough’s residents have the opportunity to work on site during both construction and delivery.”
The reserved matters application takes two forms: The first deals with the detail of buildings, with the second addressing the infrastructure works.
Spawforths is the planning consultant for the scheme, with Curtins advising on highways, Fletcher Rae the architects and TPM Landscape the landscape architects. 4ward are the project managers.
