Row brews over giant depot plan
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Local residents have been protesting against plans to create an intermodal freight depot in
Warrington. Chris Tindall reports.
PEOPLE LIVING near a site in Warrington. Cheshire earmarked for redevelopment as one of the largest intermodal freight depots in Europe staged a protest last weekend.
The former Parkside Colliery site has been selected by Astral Developments for a railway link and 715,000m2 of warehousing, distribution buildings. container depots and a cargo exchange. Astral says the scheme would create up to 10,000 jobs and cut carbon emissions by moving freight from road to rail.
But the Parkside Action Group (PAG) says the site is on green-belt land and the project would result in two million LGV movements every year. FAG chairman Brendan Page claims it would bring misery to thousand, of locals because of traffic, noisc and pollution.
However. the Parkside2010 website,set up by the firm providing PR for Astral Developments, insists: "An investment of this size is crucial for the region's future. The local area has suffered from long-term structural unemployment since the closure of the Parkside Colliery and other related industries" A spokeswoman for St Helens Council says: "The application is still with us: it's not gone to planning yet. It's so detailed and very complicated:' A decision is expected in December.
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