IF anyone knows about leading and delivering transformation in St Helens, it is Eamonn McManus.

As chairman of St Helens RFC, McManus spearheaded the push to create a new £30m stadium for the rugby league club at Peasley Cross.

It took the best part of a decade for the ambitions to be realised – and the project overcame lots of hurdles, as well as cynicism and negativity – but eventually the biggest regeneration project that St Helens had aimed for in modern times was realised.

McManus has taken on the role as chairman of the St Helens Economy Board, which aims to drive growth across the borough and make it central to the development of the Northern Powerhouse.

He sees parallels with the challenges that confronted Saints 15 years ago: “Then we were faced with a business with negative net assets, recurrent losses, and a crumbling stadium. However, we were a great rugby club.

“We put together a team with St Helens Council and with Langtree (the developer) that had clear objectives, real talent, a capacity for hard work and, most importantly, a burning desire to achieve our objectives.

“Today we have the best club rugby stadium of either code in the country.

“The task in the decade ahead for the town is the same as it was for the club in the previous decade.”

McManus, who is St Helens-born, developed his career in Hong Kong as an investment banker. He has the business knowledge, negotiating skills and presence to sell the “St Helens story” way beyond the borough’s boundaries.

He said: “The prime objective of the new St Helens economic strategy is to confidently and clearly expound the assets and advantages which the town currently possesses, and to complement and grow these with the realisation of investment, business, employment and population growth in the decade ahead.

“A period of economic over-performance is essential and is now at hand. This will also be supported and underpinned by planned transformational changes in the town centre.

“A new Economy Board of St Helens, chaired by myself and including highly successful and appropriate private sector representatives, has been set up to support the local authority with the formulation and implementation of its new economic strategy.

“They include: Mike Palin, the Chief Executive of St Helens Council; Iain Jenkinson, the Head of National Planning at CBRE (one of the largest property consultancy groups in the world); Carmel Booth, the Chief Executive of Atlantic Gateway; David Farmer, the Managing Director of NGF Europe; and Dermot Coleman, a highly successful fund manager who has also been a key driving force in the Shakespeare North project in Prescot.

“The Economy Board is ideally qualified and positioned to ensure that we are connecting to the right people, in the right places at the right times.

“We must be seen, heard and taken seriously by the key players and decision makers in the public and private sectors, and in particular in the Liverpool and Manchester City Regions and in Westminster.

“We also aim to embrace existing businesses in St Helens in the roll-out of our strategy.

“To this end we have launched the St Helens Ambassadors programme to enable this and also to assist us to further promote, position and market the new St Helens brand of investment and growth.

“This has already been very strongly subscribed and there is no doubt that the business community is strongly buying into our vision and our direction

“The era of passive regeneration is over – we must be active, bold and aggressive in our growth strategy which will be private sector led.

“St Helens is ideally located at the axis point of the Liverpool-Manchester Corridor and at the entry point to the Atlantic Gateway.

“We must aggressively position ourselves to benefit economically and commercially from this natural geographically strategic position. We can’t be a mere observer. We must be a major driver of, and participant in, the economic growth of this region in the years ahead.

“The objective over the next decade will be to produce a better town to invest in, do business in, work in and live in. We aim to re-establish St Helens as a strong, vibrant and confident town with a real sense of identity, purpose and direction. We will succeed.”