COUNCIL chiefs have approved plans to establish a growth delivering prosperity (GDP) team.

Labour-run St Helens Council’s cabinet backed the move during its meeting at the Town Hall last week.

The report to members proposed the creation of the team to accelerate the delivery of the borough’s "significant and ambitious" growth plans, while securing benefits for communities and tackling inequalities.

Council leader Cllr David Baines said: “We know, I think, that for a number of years because of austerity and cuts to services we’ve got very small teams operating across the council, whether it’s on planning or licensing or enforcement or economic development and things like that.

St Helens Star:

Cllr David Baines

“A lot of responsibility falls on very few shoulders and it’s difficult for the staff to cope and they do an absolutely incredible job in increasingly difficult circumstances, particularly over the last 10 years,

“This is about addressing that and it’s about investing in what the public have very clearly told us for a number of years is a priority, which is economic development, investment, growth and driving prosperity in the borough.

“They’ve told us it’s important to them, we’ve promised to do something about it, and this is us doing it.”

In her report to the cabinet, Lisa Harris, the council’s executive director of place, said the aim of the team is to maximise outcomes and enhance service delivery, along with creating opportunities for staff development across the strategic growth department.

The cabinet noted the establishment of GDP team within the strategic growth department and agreed to a cabinet report that will consider the funding mechanisms for the team across the financial years 2021-22 to 2023-24.