Transport schemes worth £500m in Greater Manchester have been ditched by the government – but major work on the motorway network will go ahead.
The axed schemes include a £290m bypass connecting the A6 near Stockport with the M56 at Manchester Airport.
The £100m proposal for a relief road to replace the shelved Mottram-Tintwistle by-pass has also been scrapped.
So has a £32m plan for 18 new park-and-ride sites across the region, a £30m inner relief road for Wigan and a £50m package of train station improvements.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said there was ‘no immediate prospect’ of those schemes now going ahead.
The M.E.N understands they will not be reconsidered until 2015 at the earliest.
But a £130m by-pass from the M56 at Bowdon – through Chancellor George Osborne’s Tatton constituency – to the M6 at Knutsford was unexpectedly approved.
And plans to build an extra lane on the M60 at Worsley will go ahead, as will a scheme to let drivers use the hard-shoulder on the M60 near the Trafford Centre and the M62 near Middleton.
The fate of the £54m transformation of Oxford Road into a bus-dominated ‘green corridor’ and the £11.5m redevelopment of Rochdale bus station are hanging in the balance.
The government said transport chiefs will have to make fresh bids for them.
Coun Ian Macdonald, chairman of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority, said he was confident both schemes were value for money.
Lord Peter Smith, chairman of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, said it was ‘regrettable’ those bids would have to be re-submitted.
He said: “We will comply with the request and remain confident that these schemes will ultimately receive their support.”
He said he was disappointed the M56 to A6 by-pass, the Mottram by-pass and the Wigan relief road had not been backed.
He added: “We have long argued that funding decisions such as this should be made locally. We are best placed to ensure limited public funding is deployed to achieve maximum outcome.”
More than £950m-worth of projects are still going ahead as part of the Greater Manchester Transport Fund – set up after the ‘no’ vote to congestiong charge – including the Metrolink ‘Big Bang’ extensions.
Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority will look at whether they can get cash for the ditched schemes from the £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund or the £560m Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
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We need an extra lane on the M56 - Sharston to Stockport.
I suppose all the southern roads have been given the go ahead because of the money saved in cancelling northern projects.
The official announcement:
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=202&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=416188&SubjectId=36
shows 7 out of 9 major schemes approved are in the north
- M60 Junctions 8 – 12
- M1 Junctions 32 – 35a
- M60 Junctions 12 – 15
- M1 Junctions 39 – 42
- M62 Junctions 18 – 20
- M25 Junctions 5 – 6/7
- M25 Junctions 23 – 27
- M6 Junctions 5 – 8
- A556 Knutsford – Bowdon
surely this won't affect siddy's Massive crowds for European Nights will it?
But a £130m by-pass from the M56 at Bowdon – through Chancellor George Osborne’s Tatton constituency – to the M6 at Knutsford was unexpectedly approved.
well theres a big surprise, they are only in it for what they can get out of it, and that goes for every single mp in this country, they dont give two s**ts about and working person in this country!!!!!!!
What did Con & Co. say they would do when in Manhcester - Invest. Looks like it.
At least Osbourne's life will be a bit easier when visiting his Tatton constituency on the new £130m by pass. Talk about scratch my back and I'll scratch yours comes to mind.
nice to see the chancellor is looking after his own back yard,the A56 bypass is hardly desperatly in need, where as the mottram bypass is YEARS over due, this area is a perminant traffic jam, where as the road from bowden to knutsford very rarely even has a traffic jam. but it do'es go past the nice BIG houses near Mere.This is the usual tory way NIMBY RULES.
When the motorway systems were first built there was an alarming lack of foresight.
Right from the start every Motorway should have had eight lanes in both directions. More thought should have been to the A roads leading up to join the motorways where present ones at the time widened and where needed new ones built.
We all know foresight is a wonderful thing but by heck can you imagine the money that would have saved if some 'GENIUS' of a road builder was around in the late 50s?
The journey between the start of the M67 at Denton, and getting down Mottram Moor through Woolley bridge into Glossop/Hadfield/Tintwistle through to the Snake or Woodhead is a bloody nightmare. George Osborne wants to come and have a look for himself. It is a danger to motorists, pedestrians and the environment in these little villages, yet they see fit to give a £130m by-pass from the M56 at Bowdon through to the M6 at Knutsford. That's not got a quarter of the traffic! One rule for one, one for another. Typical MP.
Does anyone know why they don't upgrade M56 Junction 20, where it crosses the M6 to add access to M6 South?
And also add a slip road linking M6 North to M56 (Manchester bound)?
That has always seemed to be the most logical and cost effective option, removes traffic off teh M56 and makes the journey quicker.
Next time Osbourne VISITS Tatton he should come off the M1 at Sheffield and go over Woodhead to Mottram from here you get on the M67-M60-M56. The Mottram by-pass would soon go ahead if he had to take this route on a regular basis.
"But a £130m by-pass from the M56 at Bowdon – through Chancellor George Osborne’s Tatton constituency – to the M6 at Knutsford was unexpectedly approved."
what a surprise - not!!!!!
Will the funds come from his tax free accounts in Grand Cayman or British Virgin Islands??
It's 'railway station' not 'train station', get it right!
Bowden to the M6, slow but not conjested, going to Birmingham or just travelling south on th M6, stay on theM56, go to the Lymm turn off, up the slip road to the services roundabout, go back on to the M6 south bound, hey presto, no queue, time extra maybe 5 minutes,
dump the by pass, close the junction, spend the money on the Hollingworth by pass at Mottram
travel tramp
Good to see all the support for the Mottram - Tintwistle bypass. Write to your MP and voice your opinions wherever you live - it will all help. Just to add the A34 Alderley Edge bypass opening soon with 30% less traffic than the A628/A57 (some big houses and big cars round there) and the Sefton link from Switch Island tothe A 565 Southport - Liverpool road has been approved with about half the amount of traffic. Who makes these crass decisions?