THE Cantilever Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal at Warrington is set to close for urgent repair works from 9.30am next Monday, October 10.
Peel Ports, which owns the bridge and is carrying out the work, has informed Warrington Borough Council that the repairs are anticipated to take up to five days and must proceed without delay, although they say there is no immediate risk to the travelling public.
Coupled with the ongoing highway improvement works on Knutsford Road motorists are advised to find alternative routes or allow extra journey time.
6 Comments
I wonder how long it will be before the swing bridges have to be closed for sudden and urgent repairs considering Peel’s are just leaving them to rust and rot away and don;t seem remotely interested about the condition of them. On a positive note though at least they are doing something about whatever is wrong with the Cantilever bridge……traffic will be an absolute nightmare though with that shut for 5 days 🙁
We may get 5 days of traffic hell but what an example of the disruption caused when there are traffic flow problems in the south Warrington area for whatever reason.
Sitting trapped in the traffic for these 5 days will give people ample time to reflect on the impact a few thousand more cars on the roads will have if the current housing development plans go ahead.
I don’t think it would be difficult to crowd fund the £10k needed to challenge a decision to build.
The paradox is that the uplift in the value of the HCA land will be used to fund a second (high level) Warrington bridge. My understanding is that the land in question comes with rights to build already, and on that basis it would seem that a challenge would not be successful, coupled to which current central Government policy is to develop land for housing. Ironically, despite the congestion problems that we have in Warrington and the UK in general, the UK’s motor industry(now mainly foreign owned) has been one of our great manufacturing success stories in the last decade….I’m old enough to remember how it boomed in the 60s and then went in to serious decline for nearly 4 decades.
The land in question was reserved for possible development if the housing demand could not be fulfilled elsewhere.
Development of reserved land elsewhere in the country has been successfully challenged – as Warrington still has plenty of brownfield sites these greenfield sites are not really needed.
Also, weren’t the original rights given with plans including a South Warrington expressway? We are still waiting for the Howshoots link which should have been built together with the last round of development in the area.
No matter what preliminary permissions may have been given in the past, present day circumstances will be relevant to any proposed development. South Warrington does not have the infrastructure to support new housing developments and these plans can and no doubt will be challenged. Do you really think that HACA would be holding public meetings re the proposals if the deal was done and dusted? They would have brought the bulldozers straight in if they were legally entitled to – which they obviously are not.
If a challenge is unsuccessful in the English courts there would still remain the option of a challenge in the European court. The massive negative impact on the lives of residents of South Warrington should these proposals go ahead is not acceptable and legal challenges by members of the public are nowhere near as expensive as they once were. Legal fees for developers however remain high – not to mention any compensation payments they may have to pay.
They were as I recall, seen to think the then Cheshire County Council, after much political in fighting, pocketed the money set aside. Yes, the public presentation/meeting, which I attended was to give folks a taste of what is being proposed and is a consultation on the outline plans. The process will be that HCA will put in an outline planning application, probably late this year / early next year, then developers will bid for the land to add to their landbanks and then building as and when the market is right. With regards to legal challenges etc, the best way, as I have recently found out in relation to an airfield application, is for objectors to go straight to the Secretary of State and ask him to call in the application…… because of its strategic significance…….. prior to WBC considering it….speeds the whole process up. Regarding the comments regarding “preliminary permissions”, I think that it is far more than that, I think HCA might well have vested planning permission. Also I come back to one of my original comments regarding WBC getting the uplift in value to fund a bridge. Anyway enough said on my part as I have other things to concern myself with, and time will tell.
Paul, where exactly is the new high level bridge going to be situated? Will it alleviate the traffic congestion generated by this development or just open up other sites for development?