By the end of this year Omega will be home to 7000 new jobs and have 4.2 million square foot of logistics and industrial space built – that’s the equivalent of 93 football pitches. It is easy to forget that the site was a vacant disused airfield only three years ago.

The site is alive with activity. The northern site is now completely full with Haydock Commercial Vehicles having taken the final plot to provide a 35,000 sq. ft. Scania commercial vehicle servicing centre which will include providing servicing the vehicles for some of its fellow Omega occupiers. The Scania facility will open later this year.

The residential aspect of Omega is also now well underway on Omega South with Miller Homes starting to build the first of 250 homes at the south eastern corner of the site near to Burtonwood Road and with the first residential road now completed. Further up Whittle Avenue at Charon Way the £12.5 million junction improvement works to Junction 8 roundabout are visibly taking shape and the new slip road is set to open next March.

An exciting key feature of Omega will be its green heart, a new 35 acre park in the centre of the development. The site will initially continue to be used by the developers but over the next three years will be remodelled to create a new park, providing green space for the enjoyment of local residents and workers. The Land Trust, a national land management charity, will undertake this through an endowment fund set up by the Homes & Communities Agency to pay for the management of the park in perpetuity. The Land Trust will also maintain all of the green space in and around Omega.

Further up the M62 at Birchwood Park I am delighted to welcome global company Cavendish Nuclear to Warrington. Warrington is the HQ of the nuclear industry in the UK and the industry location of choice. There are more nuclear companies based in Warrington than anywhere else in Europe and Cavendish Nuclear will make a significant addition bringing 550 employees. This will take the total number of nuclear related jobs in Warrington and Birchwood in particular to over 7,000.

The nuclear services provider has acquired all 47,149 sq. ft. of space at Birchwood Park’s 106 Dalton Avenue address, and remember that Birchwood Park benefits from being an Enterprise Zone as part of the Cheshire Science Corridor, making investment much more attractive to new businesses.