HAVING grown up in St Helens I have always maintained a pride in our town’s many cultural, civic and sporting achievements.


However, I cannot help but worry that our town is now destined to become a rundown relic of its former glory. 


Our civic forefathers had ambition and vision – they built factories, modern homes, established parks, pioneered transportation routes to link us to the cities of Liverpool and Manchester.


To do this, they transformed the farmlands surrounding the borough in the belief that the expansion of homes would attract the people the town needed – workers who could aspire to a higher standard of living and in doing so fire the region’s commercial success.


If our forefathers were with us today, they would relocate to Warrington. 


The fact is, for decades, our near neighbour has outsmarted us in terms of its vision and ambition.


It has aggressively worked to attract new businesses and has constructed aspirational housing estates to cater for (what economists refer to as ) the ‘mobile middle classes’.


We may not like the terminology, but it is a unassailable truth that ultimately this is the demographic group with a vast spending power; indeed the group who monetarily contribute most to a region’s economic success.


Warrington has done this by boldly utilising greenbelt land to expand infrastructure, commerce and to build attractive aspirational residential estates. 


Like our forefathers, they have made the difficult decision to utilise green space for the greater good of the community and to necessarily rejuvenate the life blood of their town. 


Surely it is time that we also began heeding this lesson from history – that great vision and economic prosperity comes at the price of sacrifice.

TC, Windle