Parkside Link Road officially unveiled

The Parkside Link Road has been officially unveiled and is being tipped to have an “absolutely tremendous” impact.

The unveiling took place at the site on Friday – with the road to open to traffic tomorrow.

The Parkside project will see the former Parkside Colliery site in Newton-le-Willows transformed into a new employment park.

And the new link road has been tipped to help “unlock” the former Parkside Colliery site for development, and to deliver “much-needed” investment, jobs, infrastructure and training opportunities for residents and communities in Newton-le-Willows and the surrounding areas.

The Parkside Link Road is a £60 million infrastructure project delivered with £39 million from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, as well as additional funding from St Helens Council and Parkside Regeneration.

It will provide “crucial infrastructure” to facilitate the “economic development” of the former Parkside Colliery site and land to the east of the M6 motorway.

The new road aims to ensure traffic generated by the site will be diverted away from residential areas and the A49, while also improving connectivity for commuters and helping to reduce environmental concerns.

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram hailed the scheme.

“This is not just a road or a piece of infrastructure, this creates the opportunity now for businesses to come here, to relocate to St Helens, to create those really good opportunities,” he said.

“Of course, what we want to do, is to see this place flourish in the near future.”

Mr Rotheram was also asked about some of the opposition there has been to the scheme.

He said: “Everybody wants things done, but nobody wants things done near them.

“This was an area for 40 odd years has been abandoned, and you can see Mother Nature has taken over largely.

“But this will have new life breathed into it because the types of companies who are already interested in coming here will create the good jobs, they’ll create the opportunity for skills development.”

Cllr Anthony Burns, leader of St Helens Council, says it will have an “absolutely tremendous” impact.

“All our growth and regeneration agenda, this is what we’re trying to get across to residents, it’s not about shiny buildings, it’s about people,” he said.

“So the fact that we can create all those opportunities, higher-paid jobs, and not just the jobs but the skills linked to them, to get our young people to those jobs, that’s the thing that makes me most excited about this place.

“The Freeport is brilliant, the City Region is brilliant, all that kind of stuff is brilliant, but it’s about the real people getting the real jobs and opportunities.”

Cllr Kate Groucutt, St Helens Council’s cabinet member for business and inclusive growth, said the link road will have a “transformative” impact.

“It’s about what the road unlocks, which is easier travel, easier movement for residents in their daily lives, for school, for leisure, but also crucially for business,” she said.

“It’s true there has been opposition, but I feel we’ve listened throughout that process, and the plans really reflect that engagement with the local community – so, for example, the local community will have access to the site, to walking routes, to green space, in a way which we didn’t have before, it was closed and it was not accessible.”