St Helens Borough Council has secured more than £2m in funding to deliver a number of key sustainable travel schemes, including expanding the borough’s walking and cycling network – and building a new state-of-the-art bus station in St Helens town centre.
Totalling £2.3m, a significant amount of money has been awarded from the Liverpool City Region which has already unlocked large-scale funding opportunities to help boost the borough’s economy, having financially backed key regeneration projects such as the Moss Nook housing development and the ground-breaking Glass Futures research and innovation facility.
While the council was one of only 21 local authorities in the country to receive £500k from the Department for Transport as part of a traffic signals maintenance scheme which will see cutting-edge, carbon-friendly technology used to upgrade Boardman’s Lane and Chancery Lane, Parr - as well as the Park Road and Ashcroft Street junction.
With planning permission granted for 1,100 new dwellings on a strategic brownfield site at Cowley Hill, outline designs will go ahead for measures to improve sustainable travel between St Helens Town Centre and the A580 East Lancashire Road, including a business case for a new railway station at Carr Mill.
Meanwhile, supporting the council’s ambitious vision for St Helens town centre - which recently received a £25m funding boost - plans will be drawn up for a new St Helens Bus Station, along with improved walking and cycling access in and around the town centre.
Building on the success of recent walking and cycling improvements along Chester Lane, Jubits Lane and Clock Face Road - which has resulted in 365,00 trips on foot and by bike between December 2020 and July 2021 – more routes will be put in to join Lea Green with Whiston Hospital – as well as an all year round walking and cycling connection with Clock Face, Sutton and Omega Business Park to allow residents to access nearby job opportunities at major employment sites.
Commenting after funding was approved at a cabinet meeting this week, Councillor Andy Bowden, St Helens Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said:
“Among our key priorities as a council is to promote good health, support a strong, diverse and well-connected local economy, and create a green, thriving and vibrant place we can all be proud of – while continuing work to fulfil our commitment to reach carbon zero status by 2040.
“Accepting this funding, which comes as a result of a commitment to deliver on our pledges to our communities, good working relationship with the Liverpool City Region and demonstrating yet again to central government an ability to deliver, represents a real opportunity to deliver on these promises by investing the money into green and sustainable projects for the better of our borough.”
View the cabinet report here: https://tinyurl.com/4mdhuv3v