Developer Peel L&P has said it hopes to advance its planning application for a major employment park and infrastructure investment on Merseyside by seeking to have it heard at a public inquiry.
The developer submitted a planning application for a new manufacturing and logistics development at Haydock Point, St Helens, in 2017 - but it still has not yet been determined by the borough council.
Back in May, the Government called in four logistics schemes in the North West - in Wigan, Bolton and the nearby £100m Parkside Colliery project.
On Monday, Peel L&P said it wanted the Haydock Point scheme included in the enquiry and decided on alongside the other schemes - to avoid the area "losing out on millions of pounds in investment".
It will appeal the Haydock Point plans on the grounds of non-determination - and look to have the appeal heard at the same conjoined inquiry with the neighbouring logistics schemes so that all can be considered together by the same inspector.
At the same time, it will submit a duplicate planning application to St Helens Council for the scheme it says will be worth £159m each year and 2,500 jobs once complete. It also includes £10m of improvement works to Junction 23 of the M6.
Richard Knight, director of land and communities at Peel L&P said: “Our proposals for new manufacturing and logistics at Haydock Point and associated highway improvement works on the network around Junction 23 will facilitate a major economic development that will support a wide range of jobs for local people and help secure supply chains for essential goods throughout St Helens and the wider region.
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“However, at a time of economic uncertainty, we need to be accelerating the delivery of these jobs and multi-million-pound investment.
"The decision to call-in several logistic schemes has meant we have had to reconsider our options and, following legal advice, we have concluded that there is no alternative but to appeal for non-determination and resubmit a fresh application."
“Our absolute preference would be for our proposals to be determined locally by St Helens Council, as we strongly believe that this is the best way to ensure that the scheme for Haydock Point meets the employment aspirations of local people and delivers maximum benefits to St Helens. As such, we’ll continue to engage with officers and hope the plans can be considered locally in due course.”
Neil Dickinson, chief investment officer of PLP, the logistics developer working on the scheme, added: “We are seeing unprecedented levels of demand in the region from occupiers who are keen to secure new employment facilities.
"Despite the changing planning circumstances, PLP remain committed to bring forward the Haydock Point development as soon as possible. The first phase is likely to be speculatively developed to enable us to respond quickly to these occupier requirements.”
“These buildings will be designed to achieve Carbon Net Zero Ready accreditation, a policy we are already rolling out elsewhere in the 海角视频 which demonstrates our commitment to deliver real environmental and sustainability benefits from this type of development.”