Will highway improvements help resolve traffic chaos?

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NEWS of the highway improvements being made in the article below is indeed welcome – but will it resolve Warrington’s chronic traffic problems which seem to have been worse than ever recently?

Hardly a day passes without traffic jams or gridlock following an accident or breakdown on one of the motorway networks surrounding Warrington.

It isn’t helped either by the Highways Agency actively encouraging motorists and lorries to divert through Warrington, without any communication with the local authority first.

It has been said many times, but Warrington’s highways infrastructure is beyond breaking point and I fear the works proposed will only be a sticking plaster.

Hundreds of motorists are still coming through Warrington rather than paying a toll on the new Halton Bridge.

How on earth some of the logistics companies who are bidding to build huge distribution centres on our Green Belt land in the south believe our highways can cope with even more HGVs on the road – I have no idea.
What is even more worrying is our highways experts raise no opposition!

But thankfully members of the planning committee ignored officer advice and voted with some common sense when they recently refused the proposed Stobart development at Appleton Thorn.
With still no sight of the Local Plan, any major development on our Green Belt land is indeed premature.

I usually like to try and be positive – but I can’t find much positive to say about the number of times we all get stuck in traffic jams. Not only is it annoying it is adding to our pollution problems.

Work starts on multi-million £ highways scheme


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

3 Comments

  1. Slutchers Lane by Wilson Patten St unfortunately cant handle this traffic – its already chaos. Might work out towards Chester Road but that will depend largely on the quality of the junction!

  2. Surely a supposed “congestion relieving bridge” with 500 new houses and Port Warrington planned at one approach and 1000 or so new houses planned along the other approach will add to the congestion we already encounter daily. It may locally “relieve” congestion at Bridgefoot, but will undoubtedly contribute significantly to the number of vehicles on Warrington’s road.

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