LEADING members of the Countryside Agency have been in St Helens to look at how the council plans to protect the future of its rural areas.

St Helens has been chosen as a pilot for work the Countryside Agency is doing to make sure the rural areas around towns and cities are protected. During the next year the Mersey Forest, Council and the Countryside Agency will work on the St Helens Urban Fringe Action Plan - a 'greenprint' to safeguard rural areas across the borough.

Tribute

Councillor Andy Bowden, Executive Member for Urban Regeneration, said: "St Helens is at the cutting edge of urban and rural issues. Such a high-profile fact finding visit is a tribute to the work being done in the town".

The visitors were shown around the Stanley Bank area of Blackbrook, where a wide partnership of organisations including the council, Environment Agency, a local farmer, St Helens Historical Society, the Merseyside Industrial Heritage Society and English Nature, are working on the positive development of the potential of this historic countryside site close to the town centre.

The Stanley Bank area of Blackbrook is rich in industrial heritage with the remains of an iron-slitting mill where nails were made and several inclined railways used to transport coal from mines in the area to barges on the St Helens Canal for delivery to Liverpool and Cheshire.