COUNCIL chiefs are pressing ahead with a £7 million project to relieve congestion at one of Cheshire’s busiest pinch points.

At Tuesday’s meeting on July 9, Cheshire West and Chester Council’s cabinet approved plans to move forwards with the A51 Tarvin to Chester road improvements scheme.

CWaC says that the scheme should reduce journey times on the A51, improve air quality and reduce the number of accidents in the area – while also improving infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.

Cllr Karen Shore, cabinet member for environment, highways and strategic transport, believes the move will provide a boost to a ‘frustrating’ stretch of road.

She said: “Its aim is to reduce congestion and standing traffic, and therefore improve quality of life for local residents and in turn air quality.

“From what we know about air quality and how pollution is dissipated, that it is the worst thing for air quality when traffic is idling, because [pollution] dissipates very quickly when the traffic is moving.”

The scheme, which was first approved in July 2016, will increase capacity and road resilience around Stamford Bridge by improving the signage, providing an additional westbound lane and widening the road.

Meanwhile, some right-turn movements at the Hare Lane/Littleton Lane junction will also be removed to avoid delays, accidents and ‘rat running’.

Welcoming the move, Cllr Stuart Parker, Conservative member for Christleton and Huntington, said: “This is an important gateway into Chester, as we all know.

“We have been campaigning for improvements for many years now as part of a more comprehensive traffic scheme.

“Two of the major congestion points appear at the junctions with Littleton Lane and Hare Lane, and traffic indicating right holds up the traffic behind – which is always a major problem.”

Cllr Parker added that he would like to see the right-turn restrictions put into place ‘as soon as possible’ to help ease congestion.

More than £3.6 million towards the scheme is being provided by the Local Growth Fund, from the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), with the remainder of the cash coming from developer contributions and CWaC.

Cllr Shore added that the LEP will be looking at other opportunities for possible upgrades along the A500 and A51 corridor in future.

Full council will soon vote on whether to ringfence the cash needed for the project – with CWaC now expecting to pay £1.6 million more than it first intended when the scheme was approved three years ago.

If that is approved, senior officers will be able to enter into contracts for pre-construction and construction work to deliver the scheme and use compulsory purchase powers to acquire land if necessary.

CWaC’s full council will next meet on Thursday, July 18.