ONCE there was a grand plan for an eastern relief road, to solve some of Warrington’s major traffic headaches.

Plans were drawn up, meetings held, protests lodged, questions asked of councillors and highways officials, by people perplexed over its merits.

The future of hundreds of homes were in jeopardy along the A50 until Cheshire County Council quietly abandoned the project.

So when the question of the much-discussed Centre Park link road hoves into view again, Podium and Warrington South MP David Mowat are on the same page, promoting a positive rather than a negative.

No-one might be more surprised than him. But when Mr Mowat urges those behind the stalled process to ‘crack on’, I think he’s bob on.

The initiative was at the discussion stage in October 2015 when WBC gave the venture its backing.

Who wouldn’t sit up and take a sip of coffee if someone suggested relieving some of the pressure on Bridge Foot which drives motorists bonkers each day.

(And prompts some of the most blatant red-light jumping, from traffic shooting across Knutsford Road towards Wilson Patten Street.) In the beginning 2018 was talked of for the new bridge across the Mersey, opening up a route from Chester Road to Slutchers Lane southbound. That has been pushed out to early 2019 now, it appears.

Plans for the removal of the old Drivetime and Spectra have got the a-okay but that’s only really the start.

Fairly soon the town is going to be shafted good and proper when a certain other Mersey Crossing becomes operational.

Let’s make a conscious effort to get our own bridges in order, including the much more intriguing second high-level structure over the Manchester Ship Canal, before the real fun and games along the river starts.

  •  NO-ONE could have seen that coming. What better way to start the summer than more rabid political mud-slinging.

Prime Minister Theresa May clearly believes a resounding General Election victory will give her Brexit negotiations some bulldog bite.

And if the polls are believed (if they’re not at least vaguely accurate this time they should be banned) then it’s a Tory landslide in prospect.

But has the vicar’s daughter unleashed a plague on her own house by forcing another vote?

Who among us was hankering for another deluge of wild claims and divisive points scoring, so soon after the EU Referendum?

And could this piece of gunboat diplomacy backfire?

If Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour are defeated then perhaps it would spell the end for the serial rebel leftie – and leave Mrs May facing someone across the dispatch box who has a hope in hell of mounting a successful opposition.

The Scottish Nationalists have dismissed the announcement. If I was them I’d be worried that their kinfolk haven’t cottoned onto the fact Nicola Sturgeon’s mob are a one-trick pony and start questioning the SNP’s track record.

And call me a bluff old sentimentalist but I do hope the Lib Dems, after being the fall guys for the last Coalition, have a resurgence.

The one motley crew who should be poised to reap this political harvest should be UKIP but their circus-style approach to running a party could hamstring even Neil Hamilton.

Will all those who claimed the slim majority who backed Brexit had buyer’s regret be proved right? Is Nigel Farage going to dust off his pint glass for one last stab at becoming an MP? Will Ant or Dec follow Donald Trump into high political office?

All I know for sure is there’s at least some guaranteed overtime for us hacks come June 8. Let battle commence.