A57 Link Roads scheme finally gets legal go ahead

A MAJOR PROJECT that would finally see the A57 bypassed around Mottram will finally go ahead after a legal challenge failed.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) went to its lawyers over the Link Roads scheme, which is designed the solve issues that have plagued Mottram Moor.

Particularly, it questioned the granting of a Development Consent Order (DCO) by Transport Secretary Mark Harper and how it reached two parts of data that allowed it to be granted.

But after hearing CPRE’s claim on two grounds, Mrs Justice Thornton has found against them and news of the go ahead of the two-and-a-half to three-year development was greeted with delight by MP Jonathan Reynolds.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted with the news from the High Court that the final legal hurdle to the construction of the Mottram Bypass has been overcome. The bypass is finally getting built!

“As a former resident of Mottram and of Hollingworth, and a former Longdendale councillor, I have spent 20 years fighting to get this much needed road built.

“For my own part, as someone who first attended a residents’ meeting on this issue in 2003, it is brilliant news.”

The project would see a dual carriageway run from the end of the M67 and through a new underpass to the north of Mottram to the A57 east of the junction at Black Moor.

Another single carriageway road would also link the A57 from Mottram Moor to Woolley Bridge, taking traffic away from the current route along Woolley Lane.

Two new junctions, Mottram Moor Junction and Woolley Bridge Junction, will be created along with improvement works on the existing M67 junction four.

Five new structures – Old Farm Underpass, Roe Cross Road Overbridge, Mottram Underpass, Carrhouse Lane Underpass and River Etherow Bridge – will also be created.

CPRE’s case had two grounds – that the Government’s approach of allowing large road schemes to go ahead without assessing the cumulative impact of carbon emissions was unlawful, and that in approving the Link Roads project, it failed to consider alternatives which would avoid harming the Green Belt, the National Park and the climate.

In a statement, the group said: “In March, Mr Justice Holgate (the senior Planning Court Judge) made an order on another road building challenge case (Stonehenge) which applied directly to our case.

“He refused the application for a further stay in that case on the basis that the Boswell Ground was materially the same as the one that was unsuccessful in the Court of Appeal in Boswell and, because the Planning Court is bound by the Court of Appeal, he could not come to a different conclusion.

“Senior legal advisers to the charity recommended that we did not challenge the issue of the stay.

“Furthermore, we were advised that because our Ground 1 was indistinguishable from that in the Boswell Case, it was agreed that there would now be no legal basis upon which to have our Ground 1 heard by the High Court.

“With both our grounds now having failed in the High Court, we were left with the option of progressing to the Court of Appeal. The board of trustees voted against this option.

“The A57 Link Roads project is but the start of the ongoing threat to the Peak District National Park.

“Plans for a bypass of Hollingworth and Tintwistle and dualling of the trunk route through the National Park remain live.

“We will be seeking to ensure that the future roads programme does not include such schemes.

“They would do irreparable harm to our most treasured and highly protected landscapes as well as worsen the climate and nature crises.

“In the shorter term, we remain unconvinced the A57 Link Roads scheme will solve the problems of chronic road congestion in the Mottram and Glossop area.”

Now the legal go ahead has been secured, work can progress – but some families will have to leave their properties.

Mr Reynolds added: “The construction compound will be built near the BP Garage on Hyde Road. Construction will take two-and-a-half to three years.

“A small number of families who currently rent properties from Highways England will have to move, but I have spoken to the authorities about this to make sure they are supported.

“There will be disruption for a project of this scale, but as ever I will continue to make sure people are fully informed of what is happening.

“Finally, there is of course still the need to ensure Hollingworth and Glossop also receive a solution to our traffic problems.

“The Department of Transport has done many studies over the last few years into the wider Manchester-Sheffield transport corridor.

“Now we have got through this hurdle, I will be seeking to meet them alongside my neighbouring colleagues to address this.”