Decision details

Cabinet considered a report on the proposed Congleton Link Road between the A534 and A536.

The report sought approval to progress the design and development of the scheme and to develop a strategy for its phased delivery. The report also highlighted potential funding options.

RESOLVED

That Cabinet

(1)  notes the costs for the provision of a single carriageway link road between the A534 Sandbach Road to A536 Macclesfield Road are estimated to be in the region of £62m including land, fees and risk;

(2)  notes that land costs for the scheme are sensitive to the allocations proposed in the emerging Local Plan and that to minimise this risk the preferred route for the link road be reflected in the Local Plan Site Allocations document;

(3)  notes that contributions from the development proposed in the Draft Local Plan have the potential to raise up to £14m as part of a mixed funding strategy;

(4)  notes that substantial use of the Council’s own resources is likely, in due course, to be required to both contribute to and ‘forward fund’ the delivery of the link road (or phases thereof) within the context of the anticipated revenues associated with future developer contributions and the estimated cost of the scheme;

(5)  notes that initial work has identified that a positive transport business case can be made for the overall scheme which can be used to support future funding bids;

(6)  notes that individual funding bids alone may be unlikely to deliver the full funding required to construct the entire link road and that a ‘phased approach’ to delivery is adopted;

(7)  notes that a phased delivery of the link road will require a consequential phasing of associated development in the Local Plan;

(8)  will continue to investigate options for a new link road between the A534 and A536 to support the potential adoption of a preferred route in the Local Plan;

(9)  will develop a funding strategy to evidence the scheme’s financial affordability to the Council over the plan period and support future decisions on a preferred transport solution for Congleton; and

(10)       notes that the validity of the funding position and delivery strategy will be tested through the Local Plan inspection process.