Member Article

Joint venture to regenerate former St Helens colliery site

St. Helens Council has partnered with Langtree Group to acquire the former Parkside colliery site at Newton le Willows, St. Helens – with the aim to bring fresh life and new jobs to the area.

A new joint venture company, jointly owned by Langtree and the council, has acquired the freehold and will now begin work on a development strategy to secure the long-term future economic benefit of the site.

Council Leader, Barrie Grunewald, said: “Parkside is one of the most important assets this borough has within its boundaries and offers the potential to create thousands of new jobs.

“This is a prime development site in the North West and offers a unique destination - sitting alongside the M6 and the West Coast mainline. It is hoped to reinstate the rail link with the mainline to create an inter-modal freight centre.”

At this stage there are no details on timescales but the council says a planning application could be submitted as early as this year so that the development can move on to create much needed employment as quickly as possible.

Councillor Grunewald, who made jobs and the economy his top priority in his leadership pledge says: “When I became Leader of the council I stated that I was firmly committed to delivering Parkside and believed that I would have failed if there was no movement on this site within 18 months.

“The Parkside project is now firmly underway and we are all committed to make this a success and to deliver much needed jobs for St Helens. Parkside will become one of the largest projects in Britain and is one of the most significant in terms of regeneration in the North West.”

“The council has received many enquiries regarding development opportunities in recent years but the former owners have, for a variety of reasons, not taken the site forward. The council worked closely with Langtree on the development of the Saints stadium and I am optimistic that this new partnership will bring new jobs to the site.” John Downes, Chief Executive of Langtree added: “ The former Parkside Colliery site is a tremendous development opportunity and we are delighted to have joined forces with St. Helens Council to bring the site back into beneficial use.

“At its peak some 2000 people worked at Parkside, mainly in skilled jobs, and it would be fantastic if we could bring such job numbers back to the site.”

Parkside Colliery closed in March 1993 - the last pit in the Lancashire Coalfield to close down.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .