Report by MHARI KELLY

URGENT action is needed to bypass a killer road in Middlewich, Clr John Brown has warned.

He is calling for residents to sign a petition which highlights the town's concerns over accident figures and traffic congestion in Lewin Street.

Copies will be available in the next few weeks outside Somerfield supermarket, in Middlewich Library and the town's shopping centre.

Clr Brown and his Lib Dem colleagues are also planning to form an action group to demonstrate the need for the early completion of phase three of the eastern relief road, which would bypass Lewin Street.

"The Congleton Borough Council Local Plan, adopted in July last year, identified provision for an eastern relief road to feed traffic from Sandbach via a point south of Bisto Foods, Booth Lane, to Midpoint 18 business park," Clr Brown explained.

"As phase one of the road section is already in place between Tesco and the A54, and ERF has agreed to finance the middle section from Tesco to Cledford Lane, completion of this second section (phase two) will fail to impact on reducing the bottleneck at Lewin Street.

"Only when the final section, phase three, is complete would significant relief from HGV traffic come into effect."

He added: "Funding for such major road works is the county council's responsibility, not the borough's. The only thing the borough can do, and is doing, is to persuade interested private sector investors to pay for the roads they require."

Clr Brown also revealed that the results of a survey into the amount of traffic travelling from junction 18 of the M6 through Middlewich and Winsford are due to be published in the autumn.

Commenting on the survey, he said: "Residents don't need a survey to appreciate Lewin Street is unsuited to heavy traffic but highway planners based in Chester do.

"We need the Midpoint 18 access road now. Completion of the eastern road will relieve traffic congestion in Lewin Street."

It is intended to present the petition to the next full borough council meeting for forwarding to the county.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.