Parkside Colliery: Government approves regeneration plan

Parkside Colliery closed in October 1992

Ambitious proposals to redevelop a former colliery into an industrial estate and logistics hub have been given the go-ahead.

The government has approved the plans for the former Parkside colliery in Newton-le-Willows, which shut in 1992.

St Helens Council previously rubber-stamped the project in 2019 but it was called in for review by Whitehall.

The council said the plan's first phase will create 500 construction jobs before an additional 1,300 other roles.

The development's first phase will see 93,000 square metres of a new employment park and logistics hub designed for the transportation, sorting, dispatch, and distribution of goods.

Council leader David Baines said it was a "momentous day" that people had "worked very hard to achieve".

John Downes, chairman of Parkside Regeneration, added: "It's been a long road, but we got there.

"I'm delighted that the Secretary of State saw as clearly as we did Parkside's potential for transformational change and the contribution it will make to re-balancing the borough's economy."

Energy Minister Tony Benn (third from right) pictured visiting Parkside in 1977

More than 1,700 miners worked at the site at its peak, producing more than 800,000 tons of coal each year.

In 1993 four women led by Anne Scargill, wife of the miners' union leader Arthur, staged a five-day sit-in in protest at plans to close 31 mines.

It was the last mine from the Lancashire coalfield to be decommissioned when it closed later that year, 36 years after the first shaft was sunk.

St Helens North MP Conor McGinn said: "Thirty years after the colliery closed, it is long overdue that we will finally see the site being brought back in to use."

Plans were also approved for the Parkside Link Road, which is seen as pivotal in "unlocking the sites full potential for future development".

Parkside is seen as a key part of the Liverpool City Region's Freeport plan to attract investment and growth to the area.

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