RELIEF ROAD ROW

COUNCIL DIGS IN ITS HEELS OVER OBJECTIONS TO PROPOSED LINK ROUTE 'MANY YEARS IN PLANNING'

- By HANNAH RICHARDSON

HARM from developments cannot always be mitigated, Trafford Council has said in response to residents’ fears over a proposed new relief road.

The Carrington Relief Road aims to divert traffic away from the A6144 by linking Manchester Road to the west with the A6144 Carrington Spur in the east. Council leaders believe this will reduce congestion and improve travel times for drivers and public transport users in the area around Partington and Carrington.

However, residents are less convinced, with some fearing the new route will actually draw more traffic to the area, as well as “destroying” local habitats and increasing the risk of flooding in the surrounding towns and villages. More than 85 objections have been lodged against the proposed new route in the roughly two weeks since the planning application for it went live.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) put these concerns to Trafford’s executive member for economy and regeneration Liz Patel.

She told us she does not believe that the scale of objections received “take into any account whatsoever the feelings of residents in Partington”.

She said: “Partington as a community is the most geographically isolated of all our communities, so Trafford on the whole enjoys great road connections, you're moments away from a motorway, a tram stop, a rail line.

“That's not the case for Partington. There's one little road in and road out that was effectively designed for horses and carts.

“We know through the work that we've done that that is a real disadvantage for the communities of Partington.

“We've got evidence that shows residents have been turned down for jobs because it’s felt that they can’t reliably get to work on time via public transport, via the routes that they live.