The government has promised £9 million funding for the Mersey Multimodal Gateway near Widnes which is being developed Stobart Group, ProLogis and Halton Borough Council.
The plan for the site, known as 3MG, is to expand the freight park, reclaiming acres of contaminated land. The money, from the Regional Growth Fund, is earmarked for development of rail infrastructure and land remediation to bring brownfield land back into use.
Richard Butcher, deputy chief executive of the Stobart Group, said: “Stobart Group has already demonstrated its commitment to develop opportunities for jobs in the Halton region and also to deliver sustainable transport solutions for the future. Securing this funding is an important step to ensure those objectives continue to be met.”
The site currently has 750,000 sq ft of distribution warehousing, and there is outline consent for a total of 1.8 million sq ft of new buildings, potentially rising to 3.5 million sqft.
The aim is to create some 5,000 new jobs for local people, attract more blue chip retailers to the borough and make the movement of freight more sustainable.
3MG forms part of the Liverpool City Region Superport Strategy and was supported by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership.
Simon Jenkins, senior vice president at ProLogis said: “Rail freight has an important role to play in the distribution of goods to, from and within the UK, so we are delighted to see that the government is actively supporting the principle of moving freight from road to rail.”