Located on the site of a former glassworks in Merseyside the £200m scheme will comprise up to 1,100 homes, a hotel and other commercial space. Tony McDonough reports
A project to build up 1,100 new homes and a hotel on the site for the former Pilkington glass works in St Helens has passed its final planning hurdle.
Liverpool-based Promenade Estates has formed a join venture with land specialists BXB to develop the Cowley Hill across four phases. The first phase would comprise 198 homes and later phases of 328, 289, and 285 homes would follow.
The scheme also includes plans for a hotel and other commercial space which may include retail, leisure or offices. It was approved by planners on St Helens Council in March and now the Section 106 agreement between the local authority and the developer has now been completed. This relates to the impact on the local community.
Located off College Street, north of St Helens town centre, the development sits on 104 acres of the former Cowley Hill Works, operated by NSG Group, adjacent to the firm’s glass coating facility which continues to operate.
“This is excellent news and comes at a very opportune moment as we assess bids from house-builders,” said Gary Goodman of BXB. “The scheme demonstrates our unique remediation and engineering skills and is an excellent example of how the right technical skills can unlock brownfield land for new housing.”
Cowley Hill Works is the largest brownfield land allocation within St Helens’ emerging local plan. The redevelopment of the site is expected to generate capital expenditure of £200m, with a further £15m expected to be spent on goods and services each year by the new residents and £1.5m of annual council tax receipts generated on full occupation.
Daniel Hynd, managing director of Promenade Estates, added: “This is an excellent example of the value we can add through our ‘brownfield first’ strategy and we remain on the look-out for similar sites.
“The opportunity to work with local authorities to help them meet their housing needs from within the existing built environment will be vital if we are to protect our green belt from undue erosion.”