£3.5m grant will fund lights plan for roundabout
ABUSY roundabout will be replaced with traffic lights after a £3.5million cash investment from the government.
Cheshire East Council has won the Department for Transport (DfT) funding to replace the roundabout which links dual carriageway the A523 Silk Road with Hibel Road and Hurdsfield Road.
Council bosses say the roundabout will be replaced with a system of phased traffic lights which will ease congestion at the site, which leads into the town centre, up into Hur- dsfield and into Tesco supermarket nearby.
They say by adding capacity for more cars and balancing traffic flows, it will reduce congestion at the traffic ‘pinch-point’, improve air quality and be a good addition to plans to regenerate Macclesfield town centre.
MP David Rutley welcomed the cash injection from the government.
He said: “I welcome this significant funding from the government, which will not only support Cheshire East Council’s plans to ease traffic congestion at a key junction, but also help increase inward investment into Macclesfield and help promote the local economy.
“This additional funding is good news for residents and businesses and I will continue to work with the council as it takes forward its plans to tackle traffic congestion.”
The council won the funding with another pot of £5m for Crewe.
Coun Rachel Bailey, leader of Cheshire East Council, said: “Fresh off the back of the news that we have been successful with our funding bid for the Middlewich bypass, this is another terrific boost for two of the other major towns. This funding is a big step towards providing much needed relief to some of the more congested areas around Crewe and Macclesfield. Alongside the council’s own funding and that from developers, it will bring further economic advantages to the borough in the form of job creation.
“We will also be able to better meet the housing provision needs of residents by enabling delivery of vital new development.”
Construction on both schemes is scheduled to get underway within two years.
The redesign is the first of a package of measures to alleviate delays and congestion on local roads at problem traffic hotspots, as part of the Macclesfield Movement Strategy.