Explanation S5

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Prescot town centre is a focus for shopping, with ancillary business and service activities, serving mainly residents within the town itself and surrounding area. The town centre shopping area is by far the oldest within Knowsley, with many buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The shopping area is now based around a modern indoor centre, built in the late 1980s. However, it also includes a substantial number of mainly small units in the older properties along Eccleston Street and streets running off it. Most of the town centre is designated a Conservation Area. In 2000, a major new shopping development (Cables Retail Park) was completed just outside the existing centre, including a new Tescos supermarket and adjoining non-food Retail Park.

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Prescot town centre provides food shopping for local people, but has limited provision of comparison goods shopping. The catchment of the centre is limited by the proximity of St Helens and Liverpool city centre. There is a high level of vacancies (14.8% of floorspace compared to a national average of 8.44% (Knowsley MBC Town Centre & Shopping Survey, Chestertons plc, 2002). Rental levels are low. The attractiveness of the centre to multiple retailers is limited to a degree by the small scale of many of the older shopping units.   

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The Knowsley MBC Town Centre & Shopping Survey 2002 found a need to provide at least a further 2,200 square metres of comparison goods floorspace within Prescot town centre through to 2016. There are no large sites available within the town centre and the Council is keen to preserve as much as possible of the historic fabric of the town. The use of site assembly powers may need to be considered to create the necessary viable redevelopment sites. The Survey identified a particular need to create a more effective “gateway” retail link between the Tescos and the older town centre along Sewell Street/Market Place. The land identified as a Development Opportunity Site on the Proposals Map would, if it became available for redevelopment for town centre uses over the Plan period, be capable of providing this link.

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The centre is also subject to proposals for the provision of a Merseytram link from Liverpool city centre (see chapter 8 “Transport”). Although the alignment of the scheme within Prescot town centre has yet to be finally determined, an indicative route is shown on the Proposals Map.

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