Funding threat to £1bn business park

Jul 23 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

THE masterplan for the £1bn Omega business park last night faced being rip- ped up and redrawn, after the Northwest Development Agency refused to hand over another £7m of public money.

Despite many years of planning, the government agency has expressed its concern that the 575-acre business park at Burtonwood, near Warrington, needs to be re-evaluated in the light of changing market conditions.

Miller Developments, which is developing the site with the support of Royal Bank of Scotland and English Partnerships, accepts the final version of the masterplan for the crucial site could be very different from its current draft.

The business park could create 24,000 jobs over 25 years on the site of the former Burtonwood World War II US Army air base next to the M62.

Matters came to a head after the regional development author-ity was recently asked to fill a funding shortfall of £7m caused by rising costs.

NWDA chief executive Steven Broomhead, whose organisation has contributed around £1m to the project, refused to sanction further investment.

The board of the Warrington-based agency believed it would be more appropriate for support to potentially protect the site to come from a private investor.