Bericote, a property developer, have submitted outline planning proposals to St Helens Council to build a 1.4m sq ft commercial development at Florida Farm North, adjacent to the A580 East Lancashire Road just a short distance from Junction 23 of the M6.
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| An artists impression of the Florida Farm North development |
To the outside world, a commercial development that claims to involve the potential for bringing nearly 2,500 jobs to the Haydock area would seem to be of significant benefit to the local economy, so what's the problem?
Well, Florida Farm North, is currently Greenbelt and the residents of Pewfall, particularly those with properties situated on the south side of Liverpool Road enjoy a semi rural aspect that has made this A58 main trunk road a sought after residential location for as long as I can remember.
The proposed development will unfortunately replace the greenbelt view with an aspect looking over a major commercial zone despite the developers best intentions to limit the impact to the environment and aesthetics.
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| The View from a property on Liverpool Road |
For property owners on Liverpool Road, the impact to their surroundings will undoubtedly be considerable and we are already seeing the consequences of the proposed development despite the fact that the scheme is only at the outline planning stage. Amongst the hoards of "Save our Greenbelt" signs on Liverpool Road there are currently eight for sale boards that have been erected which represents almost 10% of the total number of properties currently available for sale in Haydock from an area providing less than 0.5% of the total housing stock!
This undoubtedly makes for a buyers market in this part of Haydock and it will be interesting to see how property prices are affected.
Regardless of whether the proposed development goes ahead, Pewfall will remain a sought after residential location in the long term, but the short term view is one of considerable uncertainty.
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