The North West Development Agency plans to reserve a large site in the Halewood Rectangle Green Belt for a single user as part of its regional economic strategy.
The agency intends to carry out a detailed feasibility study of the planning, environmental and land assembly issues surrounding the site over the next 12 months.
The strategy ensures that the vast majority of land earmarked for development uses up a significant proportion of the region’s sizeable chunk of brownfield land – roughly a quarter of the supply in England.
But the nwDA believes an additional greenfield site is needed but has attempted to neutralise some of the objections. The strategy says: “The option of exceptional releases of green belt land within the region should remain open only where sites can satisfy criteria such as an overriding requirement for economic growth, outstanding environmental quality, social exclusion, location near to clusters of knowledge based industry or direct access to a main line railway station.”
In addition the strategy shortlists 10 oven-ready sites capable of coping with investment and expansion over the next six years and is drawing up another list of sites which can be brought forward over the next 20 years.
The sites earmarked for immediate development comprise:
- Kingsway, Rochdale,
- Ashton Moss, Tameside,
- Omega 600, Warrington,
- Daresbury Park, Warrington,
- Duerden Regional Busienss park, Preston,
- The Estuary, Liverpool,
- Kings Business Park, Knowsley,
- Wirral International Business Park,
- Kingmoor, Carlisle, and Basford, Crewe.
The Agency is taking a ‘market led approach’ to ‘right type of property in appropriate locations’. This has been defined in terms of the needs of the priority business sectors the agency wants to promote.
This means the sites include large ones able to support the expansion of key chemical and aerospace industries and smaller ones on or near emerging clusters of Information & Communication Technology, bio-technology and multi-media industries.
The Agency is also drawing up a second list of sites to accommodate expansion and investment over the next 20 years.
EGi News 14/07/99
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