Carillion's £315m road blocked for four years

Plans to build the £315m Mottram-Tintwistle bypass have been put on hold for at least four years.

Carillion has been lined-up to build the route designed to bypass the villages which currently suffer from high traffic volumes on the A628 trans-pennine trunk road between Sheffield and Manchester.

The Highways Agency has now decided to withdraw from a public inquiry into the route after a local funding body decided it wants to delay the proposed start for at least four years until 2016/17.

Work on the scheme had initially been planned to start in 2012, subject to the completion of statutory processes.

Agency Major Projects Director, Nirmal Kotecha, said: "Draft proposals for the scheme were published in 2007. Since then a Public Inquiry has been started and adjourned and there have been changes to the traffic model and the environmental statement.

"After careful consideration we therefore feel it is appropriate to withdraw from the current adjourned Inquiry and re-start statutory processes, subject to further advice to Ministers. It is important that all parties to the Inquiry have a fair opportunity to understand and test the evidence base for the scheme."