Money earmarked to alleviate traffic on some of Congleton’s busiest highways was instead spent on the link road, Cheshire East Council has confirmed.
Documents unearthed by the “Chronicle” have revealed that £850,000 originally planned for improvements to the A34 and Rood Hill was pooled into an £89 million pot spent on Wolstenholme Elmy Way.
The funds were part of a £1,178,358 contribution of s106 money – an amount given to the council by developers for infrastructure – from developer Barratt Homes for the construction of 170 houses at Somerford Reach in 2017.
Minutes from a Strategic Planning Board meeting that approved the application at the time, said members agreed to a “contribution of £850,000 towards capacity improvements of the A34 Rood Hill traffic signals or the A34 West Street roundabout, or alternative measures that “offer congestion relief benefits to the A34 corridor through Congleton.” But the money was spent instead on Congleton’s link road – which was never intended to relieve traffic in the town, as we have previously reported.
Speaking to the “Chronicle” in January 2024, Coun David Brown, who was in charge of Cheshire East’s highways and infrastructure when the link road plans were approved, said its purpose was to divert traffic from the M6 when it was closed.
He said: “The link road has made a massive difference, especially when the motorway is shut. The whole purpose was that if there was a problem on the M6, the link road would be another route for traffic to get over towards the Pennines.
“For instance, if something happened at the Thelwall Viaduct on the M6, it would be used as an alternative route. It was for that reason that we got the Government’s support for the project.”
Despite the fact that council leaders and officials at the time promised that the link road would ease congestion, it was never intended to do so.
The original aim for the link road was highlighted in a document uploaded to Cheshire East’s planning portal by Highways England.
The agency wrote: “It is not felt that this (the link road) would lead to an appreciable alteration to the distribution of traffic on strategic and connecting main local highway routes across the area.
“The more important consideration for Highways England is the uplift in traffic flows through junction 17 of the M6 arising from various housing development sites.”
In the council’s One Year After monitoring report published in January 2024, traffic data showed that the £89 million road had reduced congestion on the A34 West Road by just 14%, from 33,536 vehicles in 2018, to 28,692 in 2022.
Similarly, traffic on the A34 Rood Hill reduced by 16% from 24,283 in 2018, to 20,334 in 2022.
But the report also showed that vehicles on the A54 at Rood Hill had seen an increase of 5%, from 18,213 in 2018 to 19,192 in 2022.
The report concluded: “Due to people now working from home and using their cars less, the impact of the scheme on the minor routes in and around Congleton may be harder to analyse.
“The comparison of forecast trips from the model vs actual trips at five years post-opening of the scheme would create a better assessment of its impact.
“On this basis it can only be concluded at the moment that there is ambiguity and uncertainty around the numbers presented above from the observed counts.”
Cheshire East was asked to comment why £850,000 earmarked for traffic easing measures on the A34 and Rood Hill was spent on the link road instead.
