Whilst I am pleased that Bolton Council are now jumping on the back of the Department for Transport’s decision to revive plans for the A5225, I am very concerned that Bolton’s Labour councillors are using this as a means of justifying building thousands of houses in Westhoughton.
Plans for a Westhoughton Bypass were first raised decades ago – and it was seen as essential for the level of housing and traffic we had then. When I was first elected last year, I made it one of my priorities to look at getting this road finally built and I was pleased when a government report revived the plans last year.
Building a bypass will absolutely not pacify residents, including myself, who are so opposed to the Council’s plans for several thousand houses at Chequerbent, the Hulton Estate and elsewhere. We need this bypass for the level of traffic and housing we have now. We won’t let the Council bribe us with a bypass they should have built decades ago, in exchange for shoe-horning an entire town’s worth of extra houses onto our green fields.