Longdendale Bypass
After nearly fifty years, part of the road scheme – the Mottram Bypass and Glossop Spur – was approved by the Highways Agency on 2 December 2014; but almost a decade later, shovels are still to be seen on the ground.
A single-carriageway road through the villages of Mottram in Longdendale, Hollingworth and Tintwistle and through the Peak District National Park, it is used by a relatively large number of heavy goods vehicles.
[8] The Department for Transport published both a map of the immediate area[9] and another showing routes across the Peak District and the location of Flouch,[10] which were scheduled to have associated traffic works.
Since 1971 residents of Tameside have been working and lobbying, with local politicians, for a better solution for the A57/A628 connection of Manchester and Sheffield to the M67 – passing through villages of Mottram and Hollingworth, as well as affecting those around it.
In July 1998 the incumbent Labour government published the results of its own review in the document A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England[11] and included the bypass as a scheme to be progressed through the preparatory stages.
[14] On 31 January 2006 the Secretary of State for Transport published formal proposals in the form of Draft Orders to construct the bypass, make good the older roads, and introduce 'route restraint measures'.
[18] The North West Regional Assembly had presented advice to ministers in January 2006 and then in June 2006 provided a revised sequencing of priority schemes.
[citation needed] On 6 July 2006 the Secretary of State for Transport responded to these revised sequences and confirmed that funding provision could be made for the Longdendale bypass beyond 2010/11.
[20] The change to the proposed timing and costs required a review of the environmental statement, which was duly republished with associated draft orders on 8 February 2007.
[23] The Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, George Osborne, gave the go-ahead for an initial scheme of at least £170 million to resolve the traffic issue through Mottram and to build a link road to Glossop.
[27][30] On 4 December 2007 the Highways Agency published Route Restraint Measures – Explanation of the Further Change in the Traffic Forecasts and suggested that this data would not be available until Easter 2008.
[34] In March 2009 the Highways Agency announced that it was pulling out of the public inquiry, citing the decision of the Regional Leaders' Forum, 4NW, to delay the start of the scheme by at least four years.
The accompanying press release stated that "the extended period of time between the publication of the draft proposals for the scheme in 2007 and the earliest date at which the Inquiry might be reconvened" was a further factor in the decision to withdraw.
Translink claims the "rolling highway" would be a quick, safe and cost-effective means of carrying freight across the Pennines, a credible alternative to using the A616/A628 road.
Government-funded research carried out by English Nature found that the proposed scheme would increase greenhouse gas CO2 pollution in the area by 15,840 tonnes per annum.
[citation needed] In the republished Environmental Statement summary, the Highways Agency admit that the scheme will entail "an estimated increase of 9% in emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide".
