In Merseyside you will find an unattractive area of land that used to be Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows. The site has been dormant since 1992 and for a while now there have been plans to convert the wasteland into a freight warehouse complex. This project has been on and off due to the economy but we hear that the project is back on again.
As with any large new development idea local residence are concerned about the plans. If the complex gains planning approval the local area will have to cope with an increase in light, noise and lorry pollution. The locals concerned have started an action group (www.parksideactiongroup.org.uk) to encourage people to lobby against the development plans and sent out the newsletter below.
St Helens Council Determined to Reck Our Community
You may have thought that the fight to stop the building of the largest freight warehousing complex in Europe on our Green Belt was over with the news last year that developer Prologis had pulled out due to economic and viability reasons. But no, despite this and massive local opposition (over 1,500 responses against the scheme in the previous version of LDF) St Helens Council are still determined to press on with preparing the way for a future developer to build a huge freight terminal in their future planning policy. In the third draft of the the Local Development Framework (LDF) the Council have persisted with a set of criteria that a developer would have to satisfy in order to secure the site of the former Parkside colliery to the West of the M6 and in addition an equivalent area of land to the East of the M6 that was never part of the former colliery, and is today open countryside.
We’ve been sent a copy of the newsletter and we’re concerned that the lobby group is publicising their concerns using the picture above. The site in question is Brownfield so ideal for development whether industrial or residential. Sadly we don’t have an actual picture of the area (if you do send it in) but using Google maps we do have an aerial view which you’ll agree isn’t what is 
represented above. Also we managed to speak to a local resident who said.
‘I regularly walk my dogs near the Colliery site and it’s a depressing area to look at. Something needs to be done with it and if they need to use part of the surrounding area that’s ok with me, especially as it’ll bring much need jobs and money to the local area.’ John, High Street, Newton Le Willows.