New 1.44 million sq ft logistics park set for North West

Tritax Symmetry’s 134-acre Symmetry Park Wigan scheme has been recommended for approval at Wigan Council’s planning committee next week.

The scheme on Junction 25 of the M6 motorway is set to provide 1.44 million sq ft of logistics employment space and will create 1,650 high-quality jobs when operational, along with 1,200 construction jobs.

Symmetry Park Wigan represents a construction investment of £73m from Tritax Symmetry. The proposals include high-quality logistics buildings, alongside extensive landscaping and planting.

The first two units will be developed speculatively, starting construction in 2020, with the entire scheme completed by 2027, subject to planning consent.

Symmetry Park Wigan is to be built on a site formerly used as an open cast coal mine which was an active colliery until the early 1980s.

Andrew Dickman, director of Tritax Symmetry, said: “Subject to planning approval, we plan to start on site imminently, with high-quality warehouses as well as routes from the site to the A49, leading to the M6.”

The site sits within the Green Belt and has been identified by Wigan Council as suitable for logistics development in its April 2018 Employment Land Position Statement. The draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework has also identified the site for release from the Green Belt.

Wigan Council has identified that it does not have sufficient land outside the Green Belt to meet its employment land needs.

The recommendation to approve follows the submission of a planning application for the site in August 2018. Wigan Council is due to make a decision on the project on 14 January.

Tritax Symmetry’s application is supported by AEW Architects, planning consultant CBRE, highways advice from Crofts, air quality consultant Redmore, ecology and arboriculture consultant TEP, noise and vibration consultant REC, landscape masterplanner Enzygo, and archaeology by RSK.