Council to buy car dealer site to allow new bridge to be built

Cllr Terry O’Neill

TOWN Hall chiefs have approved the acquisition of land occupied by a car dealership in Chester Road, Warrington to enable the much anticipated Centre Park Link Road to go ahead – providing relief to the heavily congested Bridge Foot gyratory system.
Members of the borough council’s executive board agreed to purchase for an undisclosed sum,  the Furness Rigby site  – the point where a new bridge over the Mersey will be built linking  Chester Road with Centre Park.
The new road will link Chester Road with Slutchers Lane, enabling through traffic to bypass Bridge Foot and Brian Bevan island.
In a report to the executive, council leader Terry O’Neill said if the council was to seek to acquire the land through a formal compulsory purchase order, it was highly likely that a contested inquiry would result in delays resulting in increased costs due to build-cost inflation.
Acquiring the site now would also avoid the possibility of the land being made available to the wider market and the council having to compete with other potential purchasers, resulting in an increase in the value of the land.
In addition to enabling traffic to by-pass a heavily congested area, the new road would also enable development in the town centre area, notably extending the existing Centre Park employment site and bringing forward land for about 475 homes in a location within walking distance of the town centre and both Warrington’s railway stations.
If, for some reason, the Centre Park Link project did not go ahead, the site would be available for development or investment purposes.