Chris Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Green on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether there has been a review of the transport provision on the A5225 in Bolton West constituency since the proposals for the Westhoughton bypass were cancelled.

Andrew Jones

The revised version of the A5225 Wigan to Westhoughton Bypass scheme was considered by the Labour government in 1997-98 which concluded that this proposed M6 to M61 link was not of strategic national importance to merit inclusion in the core national trunk road network. The relevant local highway authorities – Bolton MBC and Wigan MBC – were therefore invited to consider the best way forward.

Transport provision in the A5225 area is now a matter for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and its constituent local highway authorities. The Combined Authority has well established mechanisms for identifying and promoting local transport investment priorities to support its strategies. These resulted, initially, in the Greater Manchester Transport Fund programme and have subsequently informed City Deal, Growth Deal and Devolution Deal agreements since 2010. This scheme has not formed part of any priority programme put forward by Greater Manchester. The Combined Authority is currently undertaking a review of the local highway network as part of its proposals for establishing a Key Route Network and this will look at current performance to inform possible future investment priorities. This assessment will include primary routes between Wigan and Bolton.