Fury greets resurrection of controversial Mottram-Tintwistle bypass

01 April 2009

The Northwest’s most controversial new road is set to be resurrected, just days after it was doomed to the axe.

Surveyor reported last week that the Highways Agency had decided to pull out of the public inquiry into the Mottram-Tintwistle bypass through the Peak National Park, after spending £20M promoting and researching the plans.

But, to the fury of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council – which favours rival bypasses – road planners are working on a new, shorter, cheaper version to the £315M relief road on the edge of Tameside.

The new plans were revealed by Manchester City Council chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein, at the monthly meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).

He said: ‘There have been a number of meetings involving the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Northwest Development Association, and a potential alternative alignment has emerged.’

He added that the plans could be put to the Department for Transport for an ‘early funding decision’ over the next few months, if the leaders approved them next month.

But Stockport council leader, Councillor Dave Goddard, reacted angrily, saying: ‘This has been killed stone dead once. Manchester was sent away to come up with new priorities, not to bring the same scheme back within a week.

‘It is like the Monty Python “dead parrot” sketch. The parrot is dead. It lives no more, but some people won’t accept it. They should be big enough to take it on the chin.’

Manchester leader, Sir Richard Leese, part of the team working on the new plans, replied: ‘I’m not sure the parrot is dead...it has simply metamorphosised into a budgie. There is no attempt by anyone to have one project pushed ahead of another.’

The scheme which Mr Goddard fears is threatened by the new plans is the South East Manchester Multi-Model Study relief road project, which includes the Manchester Airport link road west.

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