
Plans to build M54-M6 link road announced
National Highways bosses said the road was not designed for the amount and type of traffic currently using it, and this had led to delays, congestion and high accident rates.There were also air quality issues in villages along the A460 due to the high volume of traffic, they said.The proposed scheme would helped relieve congestion on the A460, A449, and A5, they added.It would support economic growth in Telford, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Cannock and Tamworth, bosses claimed, by improving traffic flow on east-west and north-south routes."These vital investments are long overdue, will transform local communities and improve living standards across the country," said Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
'Victory belongs to everyone'
A government spokesperson said the anticipated reduction in journey times would save thousands of hours every week for commuters, businesses and freight operators.They said officials were also committed to continuing 28 local road schemes - including the Middlewich Eastern Bypass in Cheshire.The proposed road will be a two-way single carriageway road that will connect a new roundabout junction off Pochin Way to a new roundabout junction to the south, connecting with the A533 Booth Lane.The 1.6-mile route would include a new bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal and a new bridge over the Sandbach-to-Northwich railway line."The campaign to build the bypass has been running for over 40 years," said Mid-Cheshire MP Andrew Cooper."We may have got this over the line, but this victory belongs to everyone who wrote a letter, signed a petition, and campaigned hard for so many years to get this on the government's agenda."Congleton MP Sarah Russell said it had been a major lobbying campaign."For the sake of our residents and the connection between our two constituencies, I'm glad we can finally confirm that the project is happening," she said.
Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Leader Live
31 minutes ago
- Leader Live
King speaks of UK and France's deepening co-operation amid ‘profound challenges'
In a speech marking President Emmanuel Macron's three-day state visit to the UK, Charles highlighted a summit between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the French leader when commentators expect the issue of small boats to be top of the agenda. The King also spoke of the growing environmental threat where the 'very future of our planet hangs in the balance' and the UK and France have a 'critical role to play'. Charles's comments were made at a Windsor Castle state banquet where Sir Mick Jagger and fiancee Melanie Hamrick were among the guests alongside Sir Elton John and husband David Furnish and actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas. The King told the guests, who included the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Prime Minister and senior members of the Cabinet: 'Monsieur le President, the summit that you and the Prime Minister will hold in London this week will deepen our alliance and broaden our partnership still further. 'Our armed forces will co-operate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine, as we join together in leading a Coalition of the Willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression; in other words, in defence of our shared values.' He went on to say: 'Our security services and police will go further still to protect us against the profound challenges of terrorism, organised crime, cyber attacks and of course irregular migration across the English Channel. 'And our businesses will innovate together, generating growth, trade and investment for our economies and across the world.' Earlier in a speech to MPs and peers, Mr Macron promised to deliver on measures to cut the number of migrants crossing the English Channel, describing the issue as a 'burden' to both countries. He told the gathering in Parliament: 'France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness.' Decisions at Thursday's UK-France summit will 'respond to our aims for co-operation and tangible results on these major issues'. In his speech Charles described the UK's closest continental neighbour as 'one of our strongest allies' and said in the face of 'complex threats' France and Britain 'must help to lead the way'. There were lighter moments, with the King joking about the popular French cartoon character Asterix the Gaul's incomprehension about Britons' love of tea with a splash of milk, and how dinner guests had drunk 'English sparkling wine made by a French Champagne house'. And he described the 'perfect combinations' of French and British – Monet's paintings of London fog and Thierry Henry, a former French striker with London football club Arsenal, scoring at Highbury. The French president even winked at the King when Charles mentioned the cultural ties between the UK and France and how a Frenchman, William the Conqueror, began building Windsor Castle more than 900 years ago and his son William has made Windsor his home. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence were also among the guests, as were former England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who now plays for Paris Saint-Germain, authors Joanne Harris and Sebastian Faulks and sculptor Sir Antony Gormley.


The Sun
35 minutes ago
- The Sun
Three men working for Wagner terrorist group convicted of arson attack on London warehouse linked to Ukraine
THREE MEN working for the Wagner Russian terrorist group were yesterday convicted of an arson attack on a warehouse linked to Ukraine. The trio caused £1 million worth of damage to an industrial unit in Leyton, East London, destroying £100,000 worth of satellite communication equipment destined for Ukraine on March 20 last year. An Old Bailey jury yesterday convicted gang members Nii Mensah, 23, Jakeem Rose, 23, and Ugnius Asmena, 20, of aggravated arson with intent to endanger life. Mensah, of Thornton Heath, South London, livestreamed the warehouse blaze to Earl after he and Rose, from Croydon, set fire to the building as Asmena waited in a car. The case is the first to result in convictions of British criminals acting as proxies for the proscribed Wagner Group. Drug dealer Dylan Earl, 20, and Gatwick Airport cleaner Jake Reeves, 23, orchestrated the plot on behalf of the Russian Wagner group of mercenaries. They planned further arson attacks on a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair and the kidnap of the owner, wealthy Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin. They are the first defendants to be convicted of offences under the National Security Act 2023, designed to thwart attacks in the UK by hostile foreign states. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb adjourned sentencing until a date to be fixed in the autumn. Moment flames engulf car outside Keir Starmer's home as man arrested over 'arson' attack on TWO properties linked to PM 1


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Ministers face fresh challenge to welfare reforms in Wednesday votes
Ministers face a fresh challenge to their welfare reforms from Labour backbenchers, who have warned that the Government is being 'stubborn and obstinate' in its efforts. The Department for Work and Pensions will try to steer the Universal Credit Bill through its final Commons stages, including clause-by-clause scrutiny, on Wednesday. The Bill, if agreed to, would roll out two different rates of benefit for claimants who cannot currently work. It would also freeze the limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCW and LCWRA) elements of the benefit until 2030. The PA news agency understands that a 'substantial number' of Labour rebels have agreed to vote to gut the Bill of these reforms, if they can trigger a division. When MPs debated the reforms last week, Government frontbenchers rolled back on their plan to reform the separate personal independence payment (Pip) benefit, vowing to revisit any proposed changes only after a review by social security minister Sir Stephen Timms. 'The Government for all the goodwill of pulling clause five on Pip, they've lost it over being so stubborn and obstinate over clauses two and three,' Labour MP for York Central Rachael Maskell said. Clause two of the Bill includes a framework for two rates of LCWRA, with claimants who are eligible for the benefit before April 2026 able to claim a higher rate than later applicants. Claimants who are terminally ill or who have severe symptoms of an illness which 'constantly' apply would also be eligible for the higher rate, regardless of when they become eligible. Ms Maskell has proposed a change to the reforms, so that someone who has slipped out of and then back into the LCWRA eligibility criteria either side of April 2026 would still be able to claim the higher rate. Approving this change would be like 'gathering up the crumbs rather than getting the full course meal', she said. Asked what the Government should do to tackle welfare costs, Ms Maskell told the PA news agency: 'We've got to put the early interventions in to take people off this path of ill health. 'We've got quite a sick society at the moment for all the reasons that we know, a broken NHS, you know, social care not being where it should be, and of course long-term Covid. 'All of that is having its impact, and the endemic mental health challenges that people are facing. 'But to then have the confidence that your programme is so good that it's going to get loads of these people into work and employers are going to have to fulfil their obligations in the future hopefully after the Charlie Mayfield report (the Keep Britain Working review) will make those recommendations – all of that, great, as far as it goes. 'But what we can't do is leave those people that can't work in poverty, because they would love to work and earn money, but they can't, so we have to pay for it. 'And therefore the people who've got the good fortune of earning money, whether it's through income or assets, they're the people that are going to have to support a wider society.' Labour MP for Poole Neil Duncan-Jordan proposed gutting the Bill through a series of draft amendments, to strike clause two and cancel the freeze in clause three. He and Ms Maskell were two of 49 MPs who unsuccessfully tried to block the Bill at second reading, when it cleared its first Commons hurdle by 335 votes to 260, majority 75. Amid fears the Bill had been rushed through Parliament, and referring to the Liberal reformer William Beveridge who published a post-war blueprint for the welfare state in 1942, Mr Duncan-Jordan asked: 'Beveridge didn't design the welfare state on the back of a postage stamp, did he?' Beyond changes to parts of the benefit specifically for people who cannot currently work, the Bill would demand an above-inflation rise to the universal credit standard allowance each year until 2030.