Pressure builds on Government for link road to ease congestion

Josh Simons, who was elected in Makerfield last July, has written to the chief secretary to the treasury Darren Jones appealing for millions of pounds of funding to be found for the link road between the M58, M6 and M61. Although parts of such a road have been built "piecemeal", opposition to numerous planning applications for housing across the Wigan borough, has been based on the shortcomings of the town's highway infrastructure. Mr Simons has challenged his own Government, saying: "At the last election, we promised change.

As the prime minister said, change must be felt to be believed, visible and tangible to millions of people who are tired of being promised change, but seeing little." The letter, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), said: "For almost 40 years, people who live around Wigan, St Helens, Leigh, Bolton Worsley and West Lancashire have been promised a direct link road between these motorways. "This road would link the supper-port in Liverpool with the motorway network connected to the entire east of the UK.

Time and time again, the budget for the road has been cut, delayed or reallocated." He said that the project may be 'among the most over-promised and under-delivered in the country'. Mr Simons went on: "It has been agreed, cancelled by Whitehall, reinstated, separated into smaller projects, partially delivered by the local authority, partially scrapped, reinstated, and now, once again, its future hangs in the balance."

He said he had been told by the transport secretary Heidi Alexander that a cross-government spending review will determine whether the funding could be provided, and whether the road could be delivered as part of the Network North proposals, or within her department's Major Road Network/Large Majors programme "Forcing traffic to drive through Wigan and other local towns to get between the M6 and M61 is not sustainable," he continued. "And it is holding back growth in the north of England." He said that Wigan council, the local authority that covers most of the road, had "pledged significant funding" for the project and considers it vital to delivering the future housing needed to hit building targets in Greater Manchester.

"If we are serious about growth across the UK, we must allow the North West to reach its full potential," Mr Simons wrote. "This link road would help do that." The MP also alluded to the South Hindley development, which will see 1,800 homes built and which he described as an 'exciting opportunity' but added, "Without further road infrastructure, this will worsen already overloaded roads and encounter significant local opposition. "Frustrating, slow journeys have been a reality for far too long for working people."

Plans to spend GBP220m on a link road between the motorways emerged two years ago. The nine-mile highway would connect junction 5 of the M61 with junction 26 of the M6 and M58, easing journeys between Leigh, Hindley, Wigan, Ince, and Pemberton. Prior to that, in 2019, Wigan and Bolton councils worked together on a GBP132m bid for the road aimed at 'unlocking' 183,000 sq metres of employment space and nearly 13,000 new homes across both boroughs.

But the government knocked back the bid, and the whole link road was then to be determined by separate pots of money for each of the 12 sections of the road--each a link itself. Such a road is an almost 80-year-old dream, with a route first identified shortly after the Second World War. Meanwhile, Wigan council leader David Molyneux agreed that a link road had been talked about since 1947.

He said the A49 link road was part of that, but has been delivered quite "piecemeal".

"But it's not something we ignore and think it will go away," he said. "There are a number of schemes for traffic improvements across the borough - the M58 link road, the Leigh by-pass up to the M62 - so there are a lot of issues we accept with traffic."

"We fully understand the issues and we hope, speaking to Josh and the other MPs, they are putting our case forward quite strongly so that should that funding become available to us to deliver an improved road network across the borough, that's what we want to do."