ONE of Warrington’s key advantages in positioning itself as a regional driver is its location.

It is almost equidistant between the North West’s economic centres, Liverpool and Manchester, and is at the heart of the region’s motorway network – it is bordered by the M6, M62 and M56 while the Mersey Gateway, if approved, will complete “the box”.

The West Coast Mainline and the Transpennine railway lines cross near the town centre, giving fast routes by train in all four directions.

Warrington itself has two sites of regional strategic importance – Omega and Warrington Central – and has two more just outside its borders.

To the north is Parkside, in St Helens, where a rail interchange facility is planned at the site of the former coal mine. A revised masterplan released last month by developers ProLogis sets out plans for 5.5m sq ft of rail-linked warehousing and office space which would provide up to 5,500 jobs.

To the south is Daresbury, in Halton, which is focused on securing science-based investment. About 70% of the workforce at Daresbury live in Warrington.

An important regional plan is for the Atlantic Gateway, which plans to create a connected area between Liverpool and Manchester city regions to “help to unlock their full sustainable economic growth potential”.

The Atlantic Gateway framework document said: “The city regions are the recognised centres of growth, with clear plans and ambitions. As part of the wider city region geography, key towns across northern Cheshire have a strong contribution to make.”

Warrington Borough Council’s Andy Farrall is excited by the potential of the Atlantic Gateway concept.

He said: “The two city regions have been very good at taking us to where we are now. But if we want to take the region forward internationally and tackle the North/South-East gap, we need to do more.

“Atlantic Gateway fuses the concept of the two city regions and our potential.”