PLANS have been submitted for improvement works at Colliers Moss and to create a new track on the site.

Proposals for the restoration of an existing trackway (partly complete), to import material to cover vandalised asbestos pipe at the site and the creation of a new track to the west of the site have been drawn up.

The works will aim to remediate the land contamination and reinstate a part of the recreational path network of Colliers Moss Common.

Colliers Moss Common is a former mossland complex which was subject to tipping from the former Bold Colliery and Bold Power Station.

Plans say that after the site became ownerless in 2006 it went under the remit of the Duchy of Lancaster, as owner of last resort and, during this period, asbestos water pipes, which crossed the site beneath a raised footpath, were unearthed in order to gain illegal access to copper cabling which ran beneath the pipes.

This resulted in "asbestos being smashed and spread across the immediate area along the length of the pipeline, creating a hazard to the public".

St Helens Council requested that the Community Forest Land Trust acquire the ownership of the land in 2014 and CFLT has facilitated a range of bids for external funding, with £213,000 generated for improvement of the site.

The CFLT undertook a first phase of track remediation which successfully restored 400m and a second phase of works to complete the remaining 600m of track restoration and deal with the asbestos hazard had started in 2018.

This now requires regularising through a planning application, the CFLT says.

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Plans state: "Clean inert soil material has been imported onto the site in order to bury exposed Crysotile asbestos and reinstate the pathway to provide a footpath / cycle way which improves the usability of the site and a link between the site, as part of Bold Forest Park, and St Helens Junction Railway Station".

They add: "Further grading and some importation of material will be required to complete the works. At the conclusion of the restoration of the track, the haul road will be fully restored to full working order".

A public consultation on plans lasts until November 16.