The approval of a 'reserved matters' application for the first phase of the Parkside Colliery redevelopment project in Newton-le-Willows has been welcomed by the Chairman of Parkside Regeneration, the joint venture company overseeing the initiative.

The planning committee of St Helens Borough Council backed proposals for the scheme's detailed design, setting the next phase of project delivery in train for three units in Phase 1, comprising around 800,000 square feet of B8 space.

"It's been a long road to get to this point, but that's a function of the project's transformational scale and the detailed nature of what was required to get us here," explained John Downes, who is also chief executive of developer Langtree, one half of the project joint venture with St Helens Borough Council.

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"I'm very pleased with the outcome and my thanks go to the council's officers and the planning committee for their hard work in assessing such a complex application. I began my career at Parkside in 1976. The colliery was the most modern pit in the Lancashire coalfield and was a great workplace for a great number of people. Returning the site to a modern major employment generator for Newton-le-Willows has long been a key priority for me. Opening the site to public access has also been a critical part of the whole design process and we have worked hard on the landscape treatment which features an extensive heritage and trim trail."

The scheme was granted outline consent following a public inquiry in November 2021, with the 'reserved matters' application submitted in May 2023. Today's approval covers the scheme's detailed design for the necessary infrastructure, including plot levels and entrances. It also covers the details of the first three units in Phase 1.

Parkside is a joint venture between St Helens Borough Council and Langtree and will see up to 2.6m square feet of logistics and advanced manufacturing space developed on the former colliery site.

The £80m first phase is expected to create around 1,330 jobs and will benefit from the construction of the £55m 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 Borough Council and add more than £80m of output per annum to the borough's economy.