FAQS

The vision for Bold Forest Garden Village is a new, sustainable community offering a mix of around 3,000 high-quality homes. The 128-hectare site is being prepared in line with Garden Village principles, including a focus on quality of design and landscape-led delivery. Beyond creating new housing, Bold Forest Garden Village will deliver community and retail facilities, benefiting local and wider communities.

During this first consultation, we’re capturing the views of residents, stakeholders and landowners on the masterplan process. This includes three different approaches to future development in the area:

• Approach 1: Urban extension united by a green heart
• Approach 2: A new village with green edges
• Approach 3: Maximising existing community assets

The masterplan seeks to provide long-term benefits to both the local area and the wider city region, through the delivery of around 3,000 new homes.

Avison Young, along with SLR Consulting and Social, is preparing an ambitious masterplan on behalf of St Helens Borough Council for Bold Forest Garden Village.

Avison Young are global commercial real estate advisors who share a commitment to making great places for people. The Bold Forest masterplan is being delivered by the Avison Young team in Manchester including planning and market experts. We’re powered by people who really love what they do. We’re proud of the fact that the work we do with our clients and partners creates prosperous places and communities designed to help people thrive.

Consultation for the emerging masterplan launched on Monday 14th April 2025 and all responses must be submitted by Friday 2nd May 2025 at the latest. This will ensure the project team can gather all feedback to inform and help finesse the overall masterplan before the autumn consultation.

It is anticipated that the final masterplan document will be submitted to St Helen’s Borough Council for approval by the end of the year.

Initial feedback on the three masterplan approaches, put forward during the spring consultation, will be refined and finessed into one overall design ahead of a second autumn consultation. Details on the range of opportunities residents, stakeholders, businesses and the wider community to feedback and help shape the final masterplan will be made available in the forthcoming months.

The project will deliver around 3,000 homes and become the largest housing allocation in the Liverpool City Region. Bold Forest Garden Village will support St Helens Borough Council’s growth strategy as a key source of housing supply over the coming years.

The intention is that Bold Forest Garden Village will offer a diverse range of homes and tenures, to cater for various demographics, ensuring they meet modern expectations for quality, sustainability, and design. More detail into this will come forward as the masterplan progresses.

We are currently assessing a range of strategic approaches for the masterplan. Social infrastructure is a key area that the team is looking at, which will be developed further as the masterplan progresses. Beyond creating new housing opportunities, Bold Forest Garden Village will deliver community infrastructure, including strategic open space and primary education, benefiting local and wider populations. This is yet to be determined, and detailed engagement is ongoing with the council, to explore the evidence base around primary education, and the amount and mix of non-residential development/ on-site community infrastructure that will be needed to support the masterplan development. Going forward, the preferred option masterplan will provide clarity on non-residential development/ onsite community infrastructure.

Accessibility is a core design principle for Bold Forest Garden Village. The transport and infrastructure plans for the village will ensure that all routes, whether for walking, cycling, or other forms of transport, are fully accessible.

Sustainability will be at the heart of this development, with a focus on creating a modern, eco-friendly community. The site will integrate ecological biodiversity into its landscape, regenerate the area and provide significant improvements to the local environment.

The site’s development will significantly enhance its biodiversity by creating a green network that supports the habitat and wildlife of Bold Forest.

Key measures include:

• Planting more native trees, hedges, and shrubs to support local wildlife.
• Protecting and enhancing habitats for species such as bats, hedgehogs, and swifts.
• Using wildlife-friendly lighting to reduce the impact on nocturnal animals.
• Creating wildlife corridors and enhancing habitat connectivity within and around the site. Additionally, the inclusion of Tunstall’s Farm and Field North of Gorsey Lane (designated Local Wildlife Sites) provides a crucial opportunity to protect and enhance biodiversity across the development area.

New public spaces and parks will provide increased opportunities for leisure activities and outdoor recreation. These green spaces will be easily accessible to residents and offer beautiful areas for people to gather, relax, and enjoy nature. The development will prioritise safe infrastructure for walking and cycling, ensuring that these activities are easy and accessible for all residents.

Bold Forest Garden Village aims to prioritise active travel, providing walking, cycling, and electric-mobility options (eScooters, eBikes) for residents. Dedicated active travel routes will connect the settlement to nearby villages and integrate seamlessly with existing public rights of way, ensuring that walking and cycling are the preferred modes of transport for residents. By creating a well-connected network, the development will encourage sustainable travel choices.

Existing onsite surface water flooding is mostly aligned along existing ditches and within small areas related to minor topographic depressions. The masterplan drainage strategy will make sure that no development is planned in surface water flow pathways, with the small minor topographic depressions reprofiled to manage and remove the localised vulnerability. In addition, a key objective of the development's drainage strategy will be to mirror the existing drainage patterns to encourage infiltration and evaporation of stormwater, while allowing controlled and restricted runoff within existing drainage ditches for larger storms and during extended wet winter periods. To achieve this, stormwater within the scheme will be managed using sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) that seek to encourage infiltration and to slow and clean water as it flows through and from the site. The SuDS will also be designed to mitigate against existing flood risk and will be integrated into the landscape design to provide amenity and biodiversity benefits.

We will be undertaking a comprehensive assessment of transport opportunities as we develop the masterplan, with an aim to minimise any negative impacts on the local road network, and making sure that existing communities close to the masterplan area are considered. We will look to identify highways improvements in the local area to alleviate the impact of the development, while also considering all opportunities to design the development in a way that promotes walking, cycling and public transport, so as to help minimise new residents’ reliance on cars.

We have launched this spring consultation to capture the feedback of residents, stakeholders, landowners and interested parties on the emerging masterplan. To feedback to the team, you can...

• Attend one of our public drop-in events:
  • 23 April 2025 1pm to 7pm
    Clock Face Miners Recreation (Clock Face Miners Club, St Helens, England, WA9 4XL)
  • 26 April 2025 11am to 4pm
    Clock Face Labour Club (469A Clock Face Road, St Helens, Merseyside, WA9 4TZ)
• Share your thoughts by email to: boldforest@social.co.uk
• Complete our online feedback form at: www.boldforestgv.co.uk
• Send your comments by post to:
  Bold Forest consultation, FREEPOST RUCJ-HCBA-JGGX, Social, Huckletree, The Express Building, 9 Great Ancoats Street, M4 5AD

Please make sure that all responses are received no later than Friday 2nd May 2025, which is when the consultation will close.

A second consultation period is set to take place in autumn. It is anticipated that the final masterplan document will be submitted to the Council for approval by the end of the year.