A planning decision due in the next few days is set to kick-start the first phases of a huge £200m housing and commercial development in Liverpool city region. Tony McDonough reports
Councillors in St Helens are being asked to give the go-ahead to a new £10m link road that will kick-start a £200m residential and development.
Developer BXB (Cowley Hill), a joint venture between BXB Land Solutions and Promenade Estates, is keen to push on with its development plans for a large brownfield site – the former Cowley Hill glassworks.
It has put forward plans for the construction of 1,100 new homes and 200,000 sq ft of commercial space. The first phase of the site, for 200 homes was sold to affordable homes provider Torus early last year.
In May BXB awarded a £6m contract to DB Remediation with the plan to start work on enabling works on the link road at the end of June.
On Tuesday, June 24, St Helens Council’s planning committee will be asked to give the go-ahead for the road. It will run from Washway Lane to College Street, and includes junction improvements at each end that will support new active travel routes.
In April BXB (Cowley Hill) secured a £10m grant from City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement, a pot of £710m set aside for major transport infrastructure projects across Liverpool city region. If approved, work will begin immediately to deliver the road.
Gary Goodman, land and planning director at BXB, said: “This is the key piece of infrastructure that will unlock housing delivery on this major brownfield site.
“We’re especially pleased that we’ve been able to work with all the key stakeholders and demonstrate how the public and private sectors can work together to deliver housing on the most challenging of sites.”
With one plot sold to Torus, planning permission for the spine road will see the remaining three housing plots brought forward, added Daniel Hynd of Promenade Estates.
“Our focus is ‘brownfield first’ and this scheme demonstrates better than most that when you combine technical expertise with commercial resources even the trickiest sites can be brought back to use for everyone’s benefit,” he explained.
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The site is one of the largest brownfield land allocations in the St Helens Local Plan and the masterplan was devised by architects Brock Carmichael, with CPC appointed as project managers and Nexus advising on planning.
Gardner & Theobold are the scheme’s cost consultants, with Curtins the structural and civil engineers. The western part of Cowley Hill Works has been retained by glassmaker Pilkington and remains in operation.