At last night’s planning committee meeting in St Helens Town Hall, a Section 73 application, which allows for variation of previously approved plans, was heard to increase the radius of the link road to allow larger vehicles to access and egress the plots on site easier.

Significant changes have also been made to tree planting and landscaping – including ponds to reduce flood risk – which will take overall biodiversity net gain to 54 percent, compared to the original planning permission which was at 38 percent, to help make Parkside become one of the greenest employment sites in the region.

Welcoming approval, Councillor Seve Gomez Aspron, Deputy Leader of St Helens Borough Council and Cabinet Member for Strategic Transport, said:

“Parkside Link Road is essentially an impressive £50m bit of public infrastructure and shows that we’re delivering what we said we were going to do.

“It’s testament to the ambition of the council that this is probably one of the biggest infrastructure projects we’ve had in the borough for years and I can’t wait for it to be open and used.”

Planning permission was granted, subject to conditions.

Funded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Parkside Link Road will help unlock the former Parkside colliery site for development, delivering much-needed investment, jobs, infrastructure and training opportunities for residents and communities in Newton-le-Willows – while diverting goods traffic away from the A49 and residential areas, improving connectivity for commuters and helping to lower local environmental concerns.

Construction of Parkside Link Road is scheduled to finish by spring 2024, with completion of junction works on the A572/A573 and Junction 22 of the M6 needed before it can open.

For more information on the Parkside Link Road scheme, visit: www.sthelens.gov.uk/plr