§ 53. Mr. A. Lewisasked the Minister of Transport whether he will make a statement on his consideration of the building of a new £4 million bypass road at Altrincham and Sale, Cheshire; and when this scheme is likely to be commenced.
§ Mr. MarplesThe joint committee of local highway authorities in the South-East Lancashire and North-East Cheshire conurbation submitted to me last August a long-term roads plan which included a western bypass of Altrincham and Sale. But the committee gave other schemes in the area higher priority than this bypass and it did not include it in its recommended programme of works up to 1972.
I agreed in general with its recommendations for these early years and have taken them into account in the roads programme which is settled as far as 1967–68. This includes a scheme to extend the Princess Parkway route (A.5103) to Form a new radial road into Manchester from the south-west which will reduce the traffic volume on A.56 through Altrincham and Sale.
The local highway authorities are carrying out a more comprehensive land use/transport survey of the conurbation, and their roads plan for the longer term will be re-assessed in the light of this. Assuming the need for a western bypass of Altrincham and Sale is confirmed I will include it in the programme as soon as I can.