The land around Station Road/Woad Lane is in residential use, whilst the remainder of the parish is predominately industrial. The three main transport routes to Immingham: the industrial freight line to Immingham Docks (former Grimsby and Immingham Electric Railway), the "Barton Line" (former Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway, est.1845), and the A180 road pass through the parish. Urban and industrial development has made Greate Coates essentially contiguous with the town of Grimsby; the Grimsby suburbs of "The Willows" and "Wybers Wood" lie to the southeast and south respectively. To the west the land is mostly open countryside, in the civil parish of Healing.