The proposed £270m bypass around Mottram and Tintwistle in the Peak District has ground to a halt after the Highways Agency pulled out of the public inquiry.

The decision comes after the Highways Authority decided to push it down their list of priorities for funding. It now means work on the scheme, originally scheduled to start in 2012, will be pushed back at least four years while the statutory process is restarted.

The trans-Pennine route is already heavily-used by commercial traffic between Manchester and Sheffield, and there was a real concern that the proposed bypass would channel even more lorries across some of the most sensitive wildlife sites in the Peak District National Park.

The Highways Agency’s decision came after the regional leaders’ forum for the north west of England, 4NW, decided not to include the £315million proposal in its spending plans up to 2016. Some £15million has already been spent on the scheme, including 15 days of a public inquiry that began in 2007 but was suspended after the Agency had to amend its traffic forecasts and environmental impact statements.
 

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