St Helens Town Centre, St Helens – The English Cities Fund (joint venture between Muse, Homes England and Legal & General) in partnership with St Helens Council with Jon Matthews Architects, Planit-IE and Arcadis

In March 2020, St Helens Council and The English Cities Fund (ECF) agreed a 20-year partnership to regenerate St Helens town centre. The masterplan features a new town centre divided into four character zones and includes the development of a new bus station, public and pedestrian-friendly spaces and the reconfiguration of redundant highways and the demolition of shopping centres.

 

 

Who is on the project team? 

 

Jon Matthews Architects

 

Planit

 

Arcadis

 

Faithful & Gould

 

Hillson Moran

 

HTS

 

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

 

St Helens town centre regeneration is a visionary, once in a lifetime opportunity which builds on the town’s rich heritage to create a successful, vibrant place with community and sustainability at its heart.

 

In March 2020, St Helens Council and The English Cities Fund (ECF) agreed a 20-year partnership to regenerate a number of areas, including St Helens town centre. This project is key to realising the Council’s vision to bring about transformational change and deliver long-lasting economic, social and environmental benefits creating a town centre fit for the future.

 

The masterplan centres on an aspirational but realistic vision for its future. It is a unique plan that nurtures and celebrates its local identity, heritage, culture and recognises the value of its past in shaping its future. 

 

It has been informed by stakeholder and local community engagement and responds to current issues/challenges faced by the local town centre and its residents. Issues include relative deprivation, declining shopper footfall, increasing vacant retail units, transport and movement issues, poor opportunities for active travel, lack of a diverse housing stock and increasingly ageing population.

 

This future place will support and enhance the shopping centre; repopulate the town centre with residents; expand employment opportunities; improve the appearance and quality of the built environment; protect existing amenities; improve transport links in and around the town centre and make the centre accessible and attractive to investment.

 

The project achieved planning permission in 2022, has committed funding and is due to start on site in 2024.

 

Please describe your approach to this future place and its mix of uses. How will it function as a vibrant place? How does it knit into, and serve the needs of, the wider area? 

 

The approach, which is consistent with the community engagement “#StHelensTogether: Our Borough Strategy 2021-2030”, envisages radical transformation of the town centre. This will be realised through nurturing St Helen’s unique culture, building upon its creative and innovate gene, and positive legacy of its industrial heritage.

 

Through the redevelopment of a new bus station, reconfiguration of redundant highways and demolition of unwelcoming and insular shopping centres, the masterplan unlocks the town centre providing a series of exemplary streets and spaces. The plan will deliver buildings and streets that are accessible by all in a sustainable, low-carbon manner, and pedestrian priority areas will make the town centre a child and family-friendly place.

 

Central to the plan is a new town centre area divided into four character zones that will seamlessly knit together. Each will offer defined spatial roles to serve local communities and attract visitors from across the borough:

 

Central retail area – the heart of the town including enhanced public space, high quality surface materials and street furniture, with the introduction of more soft landscaping and greenery.

 

Civic and heritage area - housing key heritage buildings and assets including increased public realm space, widened footways and new cycleway. 

 

Discovery Park – centres on the creation of a large new green space meaning huge wellbeing benefits whilst helping to tackle flooding and reducing carbon footprint. 

 

Education and enterprise area - incudes St Helens College and Westfield Shopping Centre with the key focus on improving the pedestrian environment, existing streets and spaces.

 

What is the environmental impact of the project? How will the carbon use and material impact of the development be mitigated? What is the sustainability strategy? 

 

The project adopts the principles and objectives of Muse’s Sustainable Development Action Plan across five key objectives. This is in line with St Helen’s Council pledge to meet zero carbon status by 2040 and address the impact of climate change on the borough. 

 

This is a place for people; a place that is future-proofed to respond to the climate emergency; deliver low carbon buildings; increase biodiversity; and reduce waste through construction and operational activities. Town centre living options will support healthy lifestyles with safe and accessible green space, an increase in children’s play facilities, access to local shops and a network of new walking and cycling routes. 

 

The first phase will deliver a mass timber frame new office, which will achieve NABERS 5.5* certification and a new timber frame market hall. 

 

High-quality open spaces will offer plentiful opportunities for play and promote active travel choices. Car parking supply will be consolidated and integrated sensitively into healthier urban streetscapes.

 

Creative ways to recycle, filter and reuse rainwater are threaded throughout the new town centre in a joyful network of swales, richly planted rain gardens, and permeable paving. 

 

Tree provision will also be maximised in the public realm areas. A selection of pollution-busting species will help improve local environmental conditions, such as air quality, and seek to enhance the wellbeing of the town’s people. Public realm materials will be selected based on their low carbon credentials and influenced by existing surfaces, to create a holistic identity.

 

Describe the social impact of the project: How will this future place contribute to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of its citizens? 

 

This project offers a unique opportunity to deliver significant social, economic and environmental benefits to the whole of the borough, with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve significant change and attract investment.

 

A common theme throughout the masterplan is a mix of complementary uses to achieve healthy, inclusive and safe spaces, delivered through high quality public realm. Carefully selected town centre spots will provide ample seating to encourage people to sit, dwell and encounter social moments. Positive, active frontages with streetscapes animated through leisure, retail, and residential use at ground level will provide an active 24/7 town centre that feels vibrant, inviting and safe. 

 

The Council and ECF have partnered with Social Value Portal to define and achieve their vision for St Helens. 

 

The first step to develop the place-based strategy was understanding the needs and priorities that exist locally. SVP conducted a Community Needs Analysis in 2022 to gather insight into local deprivation data and demographics, the council’s current and future priorities as well as opportunities for added social value locally. 

 

The social value strategy will be co-designed with the local community to generate the greatest impact. The following activities are being conducted in the pre-planning phases to inform the long-term social value strategy; Social Value Working Group; Social Value Workshops; Local Youth and Community School Engagement and Pop-up engagement and window visioning.

 

SVP will use the National TOMs Measurement Framework to assess the potential social and local economic value that is generated throughout the lifecycle of the development.