AI automation in Ormskirk and Skelmersdale.
West Lancashire had 4,540 businesses in 2026, and 87.7% of them employ fewer than ten people.Source [1] Manufacturing made up 14.3% of the borough's 49,000 employee jobs in 2024, nearly double the British share of 7.3%. Transport and storage made up 7.1%, against 5.0% nationally.Source [1]
We cover all 74 towns and villages in the district. Most of what we build is delivered remotely, so the practical question is not how far you are from us. It is whether we understand the way your trade actually works. We will come out if it helps.
Written by Sami (Sam) Swain. Local facts checked 9 October 2026.
What is happening in West Lancashire
Where the work is
- Lancashire County Council lists seven strategic employment sites in the borough. Four are in Skelmersdale, at Pimbo, Stanley, Gillibrands and White Moss Business Park. The others are Burscough's employment areas, Ormskirk Business Park and Hattersley Court in Ormskirk.Source [2]
- A £14 million scheme at White Moss Business Park, by junction 4 of the M58, will add 45 units and just over 100,000 sq ft for up to 125 jobs. It is due to finish in December 2026.Source [3]
Edge Hill University
- Edge Hill University in Ormskirk supports small firms through its Productivity and Innovation Centre, including its High Growth Innovation Sprint. In July 2026 it announced a 12 month schedule of business growth, leadership training and AI readiness work.Source [4]
- Its business school won Outstanding Support for Small Business at the Small Business Charter Awards 2026. Its programmes, including the Innovation Sprint, have supported 353 small and medium firms and helped create 483 jobs.Source [4]
Support for businesses
- West Lancashire Council points firms to Boost. Contact its Business Engagement Team on lets.talk@westlancs.gov.uk or 01695 712692.Source [5]
Industries that matter in West Lancashire
These sectors employ a bigger share of people here than they do across Great Britain, so they are where automation usually earns its keep first.
Manufacturing and engineering
Manufacturing is 14.3% of employee jobs against 7.3% in Great Britain.Source [1]
AI for manufacturingLogistics and transport
Transport and storage is 7.1% of employee jobs against 5.0%.Source [1]
AI for logisticsHospitality and tourism
Accommodation and food is 10.2% of employee jobs against 7.8%.Source [1]
AI for hospitalityHelp across Lancashire
- Boost is Lancashire's business growth hub. Its Business Support Helpdesk on 0800 488 0057 is open to every Lancashire business and to anyone planning to start one. Growth Lancashire runs the helpdesk on Boost's behalf.Source [6]
- Made Smarter North West helps small and medium manufacturing and engineering firms adopt digital technology. Firms with 249 staff or fewer and a turnover under £36 million, or a balance sheet under £18 million, can apply. It offers up to 50% match funding to a maximum of £20,000 for equipment and specialist advice, a leadership programme and funded digital internships worth up to £4,035. Boost is one of its delivery partners.Source [7]Source [8] Read our Made Smarter North West guide
- Boost's August 2026 Growth Hub Pulse reported Lancashire firms using AI for production planning, scheduling, documentation, engineering support, customer communications, reporting and administration.Source [9]
Grants and funded training that are open now are on our funding page.
Main towns in West Lancashire
Skelmersdale
Town, population 38,813, WN8
Distribution and manufacturing town with Co-operative Bank (around 650 staff), Asda, P&G and Victorian Plumbing depots, a Walkers factory and Frederick's Dairies.
Ormskirk
Town, population 24,073, L39
Edge Hill University (13,330 students) plus a town-centre economy of solicitors, estate agents and accountants, and a historic market
Burscough
Town, population 9,935, L40
Leeds and Liverpool Canal town with the Burscough Wharf retail and leisure development of around thirty units, on the A59 trunk road
Up Holland
Village, population 7,376, WN8
Contains the Pimbo industrial estate. Formerly a colliery village on high ground above the coastal plain.
Tarleton
Village, population 5,959, PR4
Market gardening on reclaimed mossland, especially salad crops grown under glass
Villages and smaller places we also cover
These are covered on the same terms. They are listed here rather than given a page each, because a page that only restates the district page helps nobody.
Andertons Mill
Appley Bridge
Former paint and linoleum works, quarries and brick clay pits. Now a weighbridge manufacturer and a caravan factory beside the canal.
Ashurst
Skelmersdale ward beneath Ashurst Beacon, with the Ashurst Shopping Centre and the Larkhill, Leeswood, Ledburn and Lindens estates
Aughton
Aughton Park
Banks
Commuter village for Southport, Liverpool and Preston, with flower and vegetable farming and birdwatching on Banks Marsh
Barrison Green
Scarisbrick hamlet formed from early farms, one of the parish's dispersed settlements with no village centre
Barrow Nook
Stone quarried here built Bickerstaffe church and school in the early 1840s
Barton
Small coastal-plain village four miles west of Ormskirk that had its own railway station from 1887 to 1952
Becconsall
Paired with Hesketh Bank in the Hesketh-with-Becconsall civil parish
Bescar
Bescar Lane railway station serves the Scarisbrick area
Bickerstaffe
United Utilities operates a major water treatment works here, expanded from 2012. Bickerstaffe Colliery closed in 1936.
Birch Green
Skelmersdale ward and new-town neighbourhood adjoining the Concourse town centre
Bispham
Around 1,000 acres of grade 2 farmland with no industrial buildings and no planned major development
Bispham Green
Once known for osier (willow) growing for basket weaving, reverted entirely to arable and pastoral farming since the 1950s
Blaguegate
Broadhurst
Wrightington locality named in the parish's historic land divisions
Burscough Bridge
Canal and rail interchange part of Burscough, on the Manchester to Southport line
Carr Cross
Scarisbrick hamlet named for its crossroads, on the Ormskirk to Southport corridor
Clieves Hills
Hamlet about a mile and a half north-west of Town Green on one of the few areas of high ground in the borough
Crawford
Dalton
Dominated by Ashurst Hill and Ashurst's Beacon, part of the Anglo-Spanish War signal relay
Digmoor
One of the seven Skelmersdale wards, a 1960s new-town neighbourhood built around Digmoor Parade district centre
Downholland
Parish covering Haskayne, Barton and Downholland Cross, on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, with the Farmer Ted's farm attraction
Downholland Cross
Village cross reinstated by the parish council to mark the millennium
Drummersdale
Scarisbrick moss-farming hamlet on the flat reclaimed land north of the A570
Fairhurst
Historic Wrightington township locality, one of the parish's named divisions
Far Banks
Rural locality of the North Meols area beyond Banks village on the Ribble estuary marshland
Great Altcar
Intensively farmed mossland cut by drainage dykes. Hosted the Waterloo Cup from 1836 to 2005 and adjoins Altcar Training Camp.
Halsall
Sparse rural farming parish where the first sod of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was cut in 1770, marked by the Halsall Navvy sculpture
Harrock
Wrightington locality on Harrock Hill, the parish's highest ground at over 400 feet, with the ruined Harrock Hall
Haskayne
Coastal-plain village within Downholland parish
Hesketh Bank
Rich coastal-plain soil supports flower and vegetable farming as the main economic activity. Brickmaking has declined.
High Moor
Wrightington hamlet on the hilly ground near Harrock, known for its country dining
Hilldale
Quarrying from the 1880s to the 1970s was the main employer. The former Hunters Hill Quarry is now a countryside park.
Holmes
Huntapac, a vegetable grower supplying supermarkets, is the main business in the area
Holmeswood
Vegetable growing, with some grain, is the economic mainstay of the village
Holt Green
South-western part of Aughton civil parish, a rural residential pocket between Aughton village and the moss farmland
Hoscar
Hundred End
Coastal hamlet with enclosed salt marsh grazed by cattle, once served by the West Lancashire Railway to market
Hurlston
One of the original Scarisbrick farm hamlets, distinct from the larger Hurlston Green to its west
Hurlston Green
Lathom
Pilkington, part of Nippon Sheet Glass, runs its European Technical Centre here. Also the site of the twice-besieged Lathom House.
Lathom South
Agricultural parish of wheat fields and hamlets between Ormskirk and Skelmersdale
Martin Mere
Locality in Burscough parish, site of the WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre, the borough's largest visitor attraction
Mere Brow
Flower and vegetable farms alongside a leisure cluster of golf course, caravan park, equestrian centre and watersports
Moorside
Skelmersdale ward on the southern side of the town, one of the seven wards the new town was divided into
Mossy Lea
Main residential settlement of Wrightington parish, containing much of the parish's housing
New Lane
Burscough parish hamlet with its own request-stop railway station on the Southport to Manchester line
Newburgh
Rural service village with the Red Lion Hotel, post office, village shop and tearoom
North Meols
Parish covering Banks and Hundred End. Flower and vegetable farming on land enriched by the 19th-century drainage of Martin Mere.
Parbold
Commuter village on the Manchester line. Formerly coal mining, sandstone quarrying and canal boatbuilding.
Pimbo
Locality in Up Holland parish, dominated by the Pimbo industrial estate serving Skelmersdale
Pinfold
Roby Mill
Village with a Church of England primary school and bus links to Wrightington Hospital
Rufford
Little or no industry. Grade one farmland plus tourism from National Trust Rufford Old Hall, Mere Sands Wood and canal marinas.
Scarisbrick
Strung along the A570 between Ormskirk and Southport, served by Bescar Lane station on the Manchester to Southport line
Scarth Hill
Shirdley Hill
Gave its name to Shirdley Hill Sand, used industrially and particularly in glassmaking
Simonswood
Sparsely populated parish containing the Grade II* listed Simonswood Hall
Snape Green
Scarisbrick hamlet on the Southport side of the parish, one of the settlements formed from early farms
Sollom
Farming hamlet in Tarleton parish on excellent soil, with an Aldi store and office units opened from 2022
Tanhouse
Skelmersdale new-town ward and neighbourhood on the eastern side of the town
Tarlscough
Home of the WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre, an SSSI, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site
Town Green
South-eastern part of Aughton parish and an Ormskirk commuter suburb, with Town Green station on Merseyrail's Ormskirk branch
Tunley
Wrightington hamlet on the higher ground above the River Douglas
Westhead
A577 village with the Ofsted-outstanding Westhead Lathom St James primary school and a carnival running since 1973
Wrightington
Wrightington Hospital in the former Wrightington Hall, plus Ainscough Crane Hire, the UK's largest crane hire operator, founded here in 1976
Wrightington Bar
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Sources
We opened and read every source below on 9 October 2026. If one has changed since, the source is right and this page is out of date, so please tell us.
- 1. ONS via Nomis, Labour market profile, West Lancashire (BRES 2024 employee jobs, UK Business Counts 2026).
- 2. Lancashire County Council, West Lancashire Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, stage 1 to 4 report, 16 April 2024.
- 3. West Lancashire Borough Council, Junction 4 scheme underway in Skelmersdale, 24 March 2026.
- 4. Lancashire Business View, Edge Hill business school wins national award for SME support, 3 July 2026.
- 5. West Lancashire Borough Council, Support to start or grow your business.
- 6. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Business Support Helpdesk.
- 7. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, North West.
- 8. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, in my region.
- 9. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Growth Hub Pulse, August 2026, August 2026.