COUNCILLORS made their final statements as two of Omega West's 800,000 sq ft warehouses were given the go-ahead this week.
Reserved matters applications for units two and three were up for debate at St Helens Council planning committee on Tuesday, June 28, after planning permission had already been approved for the Bold greenbelt developments.
The two units - 308,905 sq ft and 505,409 sq ft respectively - will comprise of a logistics warehouse, offices for administration and welfare facilities, and a transport office to control vehicle and stock movements.
They form part of a multi-million pound, three-phase development at Omega West, on the boundary of St Helens and Warrington, which is planned to bring more than 1,000 new jobs into the local economy.
Construction work is already underway on unit one, which will be occupied by Merseyside-based firm, Home Bargains, following approval from Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove.
What was said in the meeting:
Head of planning at St Helens Council, Kieran Birch, told the committee that the final matters, which included issues surrounding the scale, appearance, layout and landscaping of the warehouses were "all compliant within the conditions required".
After the initial Omega developments faced strong opposition due to building on the area's greenbelt, the developments were said to conform with the application's environmental statement as its economic benefits and biodiversity mitigation outweighs the greenbelt loss.
As part of the application's requirements, Colin Graham, development director at Omega, confirmed that the company would pay a sum of £180,000 to redevelop Bold Forest Park and £1.6m in off-site biodiversity schemes, in addition to biodiversity mitigation and soil improvement on site.
Additionally, Mr Graham said that Omega will contribute £1.75m to public transport networks so that residents in St Helens will have easier access to the site and ensure it keeps a "local employment angle".
Responding to concerns raised surrounding HGVs and residents' parking, Mr Graham added: "As a generality, we don't have issues with HGVs on Omega.
"We had some initial teething problems when the site first started [...] we've dealt with that over the last couple of years [...] and there are no residential areas nearby."
"We [now] don't have any parking complaints - I think the last one was 2019 - so I'm quite comfortable with Omega West that we can deal with parking."
Councillors' responses:
Cabinet Member for regeneration and planning, Councillor Richard McCauley said: "We've been through a long process with this, with public inquiries, and it's nice to see this finally come forward.
"I'd like to see a [jobs] monitoring report from the council [...] for the length of this project for all the units on site at Omega West.
"I think this would reassure a lot of people that the jobs we are creating, we are trying to fill these with residents of the borough and our deprived communities."
Councillor Anne McCormack said: "I'm glad to see within the report that the conditions imposed on this site have been met regarding any ecological changes that might occur due to any development, specifically the ecological impact through tree planting and biodiversity."
Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Councillor Andy Bowden added: "The reference to the [redevelopment] at Bold Forest Park is welcome to hear and I think it's all of our collective responsibility to hold [Omega] to that and the investment in biodiversity.
"It highlights the difficulty when the argument gets oversimplified between field 'bad' and development 'good' when actually, something like this can make a positive contribution to biodiversity."
Closing the meeting, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Reset and Recovery, Seve Gomez-Aspron said:
"There are different things in the greenbelt, the same way there are different things in anything that isn't greenbelt, and I think it's important to get that.
"So the investment to produce something that will have a bigger biodiversity net gain than a ploughed, knackered field that is obviously struggling to support anything, is a positive."
Referencing the 1,000 new jobs that are planned to be created with the site's development, Cllr Gomez-Aspron added: "One of the single most biggest things that support mental health is having a job, being in work and earning money and supporting yourself to be able to do what you want and pay your bills.
"[So that's why] I support [the development] for all of those reasons."
After the final reserved matters were debated for both unit two and unit three on the Omega site, the planning committee voted unanimously to approve the plans.
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