A new bus station is amongst proposed plans to deliver sustainable travel to a Merseyside borough.
St Helens Borough Council has secured more than £2m in funding to deliver a number of key sustainable travel schemes.
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.
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As part of an ‘ambitious vision’ to regenerate St Helens town centre plans will be drawn up for a new bus station in the town centre.
Other schemes include expanding the borough’s walking and cycling network in and around the town centre.
The council was also 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.
They confirmed the maintenance scheme will see carbon-friendly technology used to upgrade Boardmans Lane and Chancery Lane, Parr – as well as the Park Road and Ashcroft Street junction.
On the back of planning permission being granted for 1,100 new homes at a brownfield site at Cowley Hill, outline designs will go ahead for measures to improve travel between St Helens town centre and the East Lancashire Road.
This will include a business case for a new railway station at Carr Mill, a project which has been discussed for two decades but has had no prior success.
More cycling and walking routes will also 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.
This will aim to help residents to access nearby job opportunities at major employment sites.
In a statement, 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.”
