Poynton Relief Road to open in 2022

Cheshire East will submit its final bid for Government funding for the £51m link road, designed to join the A6 Manchester Relief Road to the A523, although a start date still hinges on the outcome of a High Court challenge.

The 3km single-carriageway road has been mooted for a number of years but now looks set to get under way with the council looking to bring together a variety of funding sources.

The road runs between Stockport Council and Cheshire East: within Stockport, the road would pass under the A5149 Chester Road and would travel in a southerly direction passing across the Woodford Aerodrome runway.

At the southern end of the scheme, which falls within the boundary of Cheshire East, the route would pass to the west of Adlington Business Park before connecting into a new roundabout junction to the west of the Adlington Travelodge. Links from this roundabout would allow the relief road to connect into the A523 London Road and Adlington Golf Centre.

The largest bid is to the Department for Transport which is for £16.4m, while Cheshire East has also bid for £5.6m from the Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership.

A further £9.7m will come from developer contributions and asset sales, with the remainder of the £19m cost to be met by Cheshire East. To date, the council has spent around £6.8m on the design, procurement, and Compulsory Purchase Orders necessary to bring forward the road; this is included in the total £19m figure.

Cheshire East said the road would relieve traffic congestion within Poynton, particularly by re-routing HGVs away from the town centre; and will support economic regeneration in Macclesfield.

A start date for the project is built around a High Court challenge, lodged by a landowner in July against the Secretary of State’s decision to allow Compulsory Purchase Orders in April.

While initial works are set to begin by the end of October, full site access will not be available until mid-May 2020, with the scheme due to open in late spring 2022. These dates are dependent on the funding bid, and the outcome of the High Court challenge.

Cheshire East’s cabinet is set to sign off the funding bid at a meeting next week.