UNCERTAINTY surrounds whether Warrington will receive previously announced funding totalling more than £121 million to improve transport in the town.

In February, under the previous Government, it was announced that Warrington was set to receive £121,251,000 through the Local Transport Fund to improve the transport connections that people rely on.

The council is expecting to hear about funding for the next two years after the Comprehensive Spending Review and Budget at the end of October, and then about the three years after this by the Budget in March 2025.

The council has not yet received the funding – but it says it was a seven-year funding allocation from April 2025 to March 2032, so ‘no monies have been received to date’.

The council also confirmed that, following the change of Government, it has not been informed that it will still be receiving this amount.

It says Warrington, along with all other local transport authorities – those not in mayoral Combined Authority areas – are awaiting announcements from the new Government about what funding will be provided from April 2025 onwards.

A spokesman added: “We are working on a range of potential options to spend future transport funding allocations on and once we know more about what funding is available then we will be able to provide more information – it will be consistent with the commitments made in our Local Transport Plan 4, local cycling and walking infrastructure plan and bus service improvement plan published earlier this year.”

The Department for Transport did not provide a comment – but pointed to previous comments that have been made, including a written statement from transport secretary Louise Haigh on July 30.

In it, she said the ‘financial inheritance this Government has received is extremely challenging’.

She added: “In recent weeks, the gap between promised schemes and the money available to deliver them has been made clear to me.

“There has been a lack of openness with the public about the status of schemes – some of which were cancelled or paused by the previous Government, without proper communication to the public.

“As the Chancellor informed Parliament, I am commissioning an internal review of DfT’s capital spend portfolio. We will bring in external expertise and move quickly to make recommendations about current and future schemes.

“This review will support the development of our new long-term strategy for transport, developing a modern and integrated network with people at its heart, and ensuring that transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time.

“I am determined that we build the transport infrastructure to drive economic growth and opportunity in every part of the country, and to deliver value for money for taxpayers.

“That ambition requires a fundamental reset to how we approach capital projects – with public trust, industry confidence and Government integrity at its heart.”