A £2-MILLION retail and restaurant development including a new Spar supermarket is set to open this September.

Work on the West Park Mews development at the former Magnet site on Prescot Road has been ongoing for the past month.

The development, expected to create up to 75 jobs, will be officially unveiled in mid-September at the site close to Carmel College.

Created by Haydock-based Driven Developments, the complex includes a Spar supermarket and also consisting of establishments including a Subway, Italian restaurant and Costa Coffee.

It will regenerate the former kitchen site, which had become an eyesore on a key route in and out of St Helens.

There will also be an Orange Fish chip shop in another building. There will be 70 parking spaces.

"It's quite exciting and it is a really big site with a lot of parking," said Haydock-based Driven Developments area manager Leighton Gates, who has led the transformation.

"We recognised that we needed that location in terms of footfall and traffic. We needed to provide a lot of parking in order to deliver what we want and we need quite a lot of square footage so we've gone for sites like this.

"We wanted to be able to offer the local facilities to the area and to get a bit creative. The Italian restaurant is a first for us and I think that's quite exciting.

"And this is our second Orange Fish and we are planning for five or six in the north west.

"We see this as a great position for it, it is a busy A-road that runs from St Helens to Liverpool and hopefully we'll be able to take lots of passing trade."