PLANS for a controversial bypass have already cost a staggering £16m - before any building work has even begun.

The Mottram to Tintwistle scheme has cost another £1m in the last six months, it was revealed in an answer to a Parliamentary question.

Highways Agency officials are currently on their fifth attempt to plan the 3.5-mile bypass, which opponents describe as 'a licence to print money'. The proposed route will divert traffic from the A628 and congested roads in Mottram, Tintwistle and Hollingworth, on the edge of Tameside.

A delay-hit public inquiry was adjourned last December and is unlikely to resume before late 2009.

A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said: "The cost incurred has been spent on paying consultants working on the revised evidence for the public inquiry.

"The economic and traffic assessment as well as traffic and environmental models are also incurring costs.

"Evidence for the public inquiry will be ready in May next year and exhibitions to explain the differences will follow that. It will be up to the independent inspector to decide when the public inquiry resumes."

A spokesman for the internet blog `No Mottram Bypass' said: "We're here again - six months down the line and costs have risen another £1m, and the inquiry is not due to resume for at least another six months, possibly more.

"Presumably, that means the Highways Agency have permission to ratchet up at least another £1m between now and then.

"In these times of supposed thrift, this scheme seems to be a licence to print money."

Residents of Mottram, Tintwistle and Hollingworth have called for a bypass since the 1970s to reduce the thousands of vehicles using roads through their villages.