THE leader of Warrington Borough Council has issued a warning shot as plans to redevelop the former Parkside Colliery are finally submitted.

A scheme to regenerate the land at Newton-le-Willows, which has been vacant since 1993, has been submitted to St Helens Council today, Tuesday, and includes 93,000 square metres of employment space which could bring 1,300 jobs.

But Terry O'Neill, WBC council leader and ward member for Burtonwood and Winwick, says the neighbouring borough must look carefully at the plans which are likely to be discussed in the summer.

He believes Winwick village could become a rat-run unless a link road from the M6 is built.

He said: "We have concerns about how this development will negatively affect areas of our borough if the work on the infrastructure is not done first. It’s absolutely vital that the new link road should be in place before any of the developments are approved.

“The A49 and the connecting junctions around Winwick will suffer from extra traffic and Winwick village may be used as a rat-run if this work isn’t done.

"We also want to make it clear that we strongly object to any Strategic Rail Freight Interchange on the Parkside site because of the huge volume of traffic this would create on our road network.”

Parkside Regeneration, the joint venture between developers Langtree and St Helens Council, says it has made several changes to its original plans in response to public consultation last year.

“The demand for logistics and manufacturing space continues to be very strong and our proposals meet a clear need in the market,” added John Downes, group managing director of Langtree and chairman of the Parkside Regeneration.

“We are keen to ensure that our investment benefits the community as much as possible.”

A new link road in to the site from junction 22 of the M6 was suggested during last year’s consultation and has been carried forward by St Helens Council.

“We are very supportive of the proposals for the new link road as it will take pressure off Winwick and the A49 and address air pollution and congestion throughout the area,” explained Mr Downes.

“During the council’s consultation on its plans our professional team has made sure that the council is fully aware of how the proposed new road can best contribute to the wider Parkside Regeneration proposals and address any community issues.”

The planning application covers the project’s proposed first stage, which would incorporate up to 93,000 square metres of new employment space, providing more than 1,300 new jobs for local people.

The application also proposes several junction improvements on the A49.

St Helens Council leader Cllr Barrie Grunewald, said: “The submission of a planning application is a key milestone in the joint venture’s ambitions for Parkside. It will show us the nature and scale of the opportunity before us to deal with long-term, generational unemployment in St Helens and bring a redundant, brownfield site back in to productive use.”