MAJOR plans for three employment units on the former Parkside Colliery site have been approved.

The chairman of Parkside Regeneration, the joint venture company tasked with delivering the redevelopment of Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows, has welcomed the approval of the company’s ‘reserved matters’ application for the scheme’s first phase.

On Tuesday, St Helens Council’s planning committee gave the green light to proposals for the scheme’s detailed design, setting the next phase of project delivery in train for three units in phase one. The proposals were approved subject to conditions – with authority delegated to the head of planning to ‘add, amend, or remove conditions as they deem necessary’.

“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 Council.

“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.

The proposals approved on Tuesday cover the scheme’s detailed design for the necessary infrastructure, including plot levels and entrances – and also covers the details of the first three units in phase one at plots A, B and C.

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