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Wigen Evening Post, 21 May 2007
Wigan today received new hope of a massive jobs boost - developers are bidding to transform the former Parkside pit and surroundings with a £270m scheme for a lorries-on to-trains/warehousing motorway interchange.
Astral claim the project will eventually employ more than 7,000 people and remove half a million HGV movements a year from the North West's motorways, as well as boosting local industry.
They argue that there are special circumstances to allow this major industrial development in the green belt.
Now the site has been named as one of the top locations in the north of England by an influential body.
The independent Panel examining the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), which determines the planning framework by which local authorities have to operate, has published its findings following extensive public consultation across the North West.
This follows a series of Examination in Public hearings between October and February.
In its policy recommendations, the panel states that Parkside would have considerable advantages as a location for an inter-modal freight interchange.
It goes on to say that a freight interchange would "lie between the major centres of production and consumption on Merseyside and in Greater Manchester".
It also states that any change in the green belt status for the area should only be made for the development of a rail freight interchange. Secretary of State for the Environment, David Milliband, will now consider the report, together with representations, aiming to publish a draft RSS this autumn, with the final plan expected to be published in early next year. That will then free the application to go before councillors.
Wigan Metro has already agreed to support the project in principle on condition that a "minimum use" rail agreement is built into any planning permission.
Parliamentary spokesman for the project, Dave Watts MP, a leading member of pro-development pressure group Parkside 2010 which has been partially funded by developers Astral, said: "The panel's findings are great news for local people in terms of jobs and for all those who support the transfer of freight on to rail.
"The endorsement they have given to rail freight in the local area confirms what most of us have been saying all along – that Parkside is the best available option for developing a rail freight terminal in the region."
But hundreds of other neighbours are opposing the scheme with more than 500 attending a series of public protest meetings before sending in letters of opposition.
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