PLANNING chiefs look set to approve proposals for a 1,000-space multi-storey car park at council-owned Birchwood Park.

An application to build the site with 1,007 car parking spaces and 12 motorcycle spaces, on land between Reynolds Avenue and Griffiths Avenue, will come before the development management committee next Wednesday.

The car parking is proposed to be spread over five floors, with the facility to have a height of around 16 metres.

The application has been put forward because of the future closures of existing surface car parks in the area, including at Lovell House and the Quadrant.

The new site would be built on the land currently home to the Lovell House site.

Warrington Borough Council (WBC) officers say the new site would provide an extra 127 spaces overall.

The application has been submitted by WBC Birchwood Park Nominee 1 Ltd and WBC Nominee Two Ltd.

Birchwood Town Council has no objections to the application but raised concerns regarding ‘speeding motorists’ within the business park.

It has requested consideration for the provision of fixed speed awareness signs.

WBC's environmental protection team also has no objections and says the increase in the number of cars using the car park is ‘not sufficient to trigger’ the need for an air quality assessment.

Birchwood Park is an existing employment area and forms part of the Cheshire science corridor enterprise zone.

WBC controversially bought the business site offshore for £211 million in September 2017.

It was purchased as an offshore asset and it is understood, if it had been onshore at the time of the deal, the Labour-run authority would have had to pay around £10.5 million in stamp duty.

The application is recommended for approval, subject to conditions.