DESIGN details for a new retail park on the site of the former Ravenhead Colliery have been approved by St Helens Council Planning Committee. B&Q will be the big name occupying one of the nine units with a total of nearly 267,000 square feet of floor space so far approved by the committee.

Plans for a tenth unit and three hot food outlets will be submitted later, together with details of the proposed leisure facility. The committee heard that there were now no plans for a hotel or filling station on the site.

Two new roundabouts to be funded by the developer - one close to Cannington island and the other off Burtonhead Road - will provide access to the estate from the Linkway. There will be a total of 1,361 parking spaces serving the various units. A pedestrian piazza is planned featuring a clock tower, which will be five metres square and seven metres high with the clock itself set on pillars 2.5 metres high. This is likely to be a reference point for most of the site.

A tree-lined avenue will form the main spine road and the developer has also agreed proposals for the improvement of Ravenhead Ponds, a site of community wildlife interest.

There will be a pedestrian link from the town centre using the footbridge over the Linkway with a new footbridge over the St Helens Canal and resurfacing of the towpath to create a route through the World of Glass site into the town centre opposite the front of the market hall. Lighting, landscaping and CCTV monitoring are planned.

Plans have also been agreed with Merseytravel for a shuttle bus service between the town centre and the retail park.

The committee was told that the design of the units on the park had been upgraded to above that normally expected in a development of this type and the layout was described as "more varied, interesting and open than is normally associated with retail parks.

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