Fieldstone pitches 90,000 sq ft Haydock scheme
According to planning documents, an advanced manufacturing occupier is already lined up for the proposed unit, next to the Mercure hotel close to Junction 23 of the M6.
St Helens Council has now validated the planning application from Fieldstone – a business linked with Lancastrian industrial specialist Barnfield – with Martin Spencer Architecture and planner Roman Summer leading the application team.
Billed as Haydock 92, the five-acre site sits on Penny Lane, next to a neighbouring 140,000 sq ft unit, being built and marketed this year for B8 use.
The design & access statement submitted by Martin Spencer said of Haydock 92 that “at this stage, the tenants for the scheme are likely to be a B2 user”. The proposed building would have a main floor area of around 68,000 sq ft with supporting office space of 21,000 sq ft over three storeys.
The site has previously been assigned for industrial use, following a reallocation by the local planning authority. It sits in something of an industrial & logistics hotbed, with Haydock Cross, Empress Park, Boston Park and the Old Boston Trading Estate all close by.
At present, part of the motorway-adjacent site is used for the sale of timber sheds, with the rest unused greenfield space.
In its planning statement, Roman Summer said: “In many respects, this proposal might be seen as representing the final piece of the ‘jigsaw’ by delivering this allocated employment plot as part of a suite of large warehouses flanking the motorway.”
In pre-application discussions, there had been some haggling over permitted use classes, and while the applicant’s team is adamant that B8 storage uses would be just as policy-compliant as B2 general industrial use, this may turn out to be a non-issue here.
As set out by Roman Summer, since the first round of pre-application feedback, “the scheme has been modified in response to the commitment to the scheme of a major employer, including the change from Class B8 to Class B2”.
Tim Webber, chairman of Barnfield Construction, a JV partner in Fieldstone, said: “This is potentially a big coup for St Helens and it underscores the attractiveness of this exceptional site for both large-scale manufacturing and logistics operators.
“We have been grateful for the support we have received from St Helens and we look forward to sustaining that close co-operation during the planning process. Together, we are working to ensure a speedy planning resolution and a construction timeline aiming for completion in Q3 next year.”
The planning application will be the third phase of development at the Haydock Green site. The initial 370,000 sq ft building was let to Movianto in 2019, whilst the second phase, Haydock 140, is now nearing completion.
Webber continued: “We are in discussions with prospective occupiers for Haydock 140, but nothing is signed at this stage, so we are continuing to market this outstanding building, with an agent’s event scheduled for the first week in September.
“In total, the Haydock Green site will deliver over 600,000 sq ft of mixed industrial and logistics development and up to 1,000 jobs.”
“The Fieldstone partnership has been a highly successful collaboration merging the complementary skills and experience of our partners. We are keen to move on from what we are achieving at Haydock to develop new sites across and beyond the North West region.”
Documents relating to the scheme can be viewed on St Helens’ planning portal, with the reference P/2025/0457/FUL.
How much more land is going be to sold in Haydock for these industrial monstrosities.
It’s a disgrace.
I would be interested to know what has happened to all the money that this council has received for selling off all of our land, it certainly hasn’t been reinvested in Haydock.
By Anonymous