Proposed M6 Toll Expressway Junctions 16 to 19 Cheshire and Staffordshire

Length 26.1km

Estimated Cost : £166.8 million

Friends of the Earth South Cheshire along with The Campaign to Protect Rural England and The Woodland Trust are campaigning against these proposals supported by Liberal Democrats. (Article was published in Liberal Democrat News)

Effects of Expressway :
Potential effects on species
- significant impact on 3 palaeoenvironmental sites and 13 other archaeological sites.
Some impact on 2 grade II listed buildings.
Significant risk of polluting sensitive watercourses during construction and operation.
Impact on river related inhabitants.
Impact on flood risk as the scheme bridges several rivers.

Let us know your Views .

Tatton's MP George Osbourne's Perspective : M6 Toll Road 23 August 2004

Junction 19 could begin to look like Spaghetti Junction! If the Government gets its way then Knutsford could be turned into a huge motorway junction. Hundreds of acres of Cheshire countryside around Tabley could be concreted over and the traffic jams on the A556 could become much worse (if that's possible). The threat comes from the Government's plans to build a new M6 Toll Road, like the one that has just opened around Birmingham. This new road would run parallel to the existing M6, starting north of Birmingham and going through Staffordshire and Cheshire. On the current proposals, it would come to an end at Junction 19, near Knutsford, where traffic would either rejoin the old M6 or go on to the existing A556 to go to Manchester. Not only would this mean a new four or six lane motorway ploughing through the countryside, but also new junctions, slip roads, flyovers, lights and all the other paraphernalia that comes with a major motorway. Junction 19 could begin to look like Spaghetti Junction.

Of course, most of us realise that we can't simply let the existing M6 stay as it is. It's supposed to be the main link between the north and the south of the country, but half the time it looks like a car park. People get stuck for hours, the pollution from all the stationary traffic is terrible and when there is a jam, the motorway traffic quickly overspills into Knutsford causing gridlock in our town. It's in everyone's interests to get the M6 moving again and a toll road maybe the best solution. I can see for myself that the toll road around Birmingham has been a great success. There's now a clear, fast, reliable route to London and traffic has been reduced on the main M6. So I'm not against a new M6 toll in practice - although I would want to look very carefully at the impact on people living alongside the existing M6.

But I do think the Government's current plans are barmy. For ending the new road at Junction 19 will create more problems that it solves. Traffic would come whizzing off the toll road only to run into a huge traffic jam on the A556. The A556 is already congested and dangerous; it can't take the extra traffic that would inevitably start using the toll road. Why on earth not continue the new toll road to Junction 20 where people can take the M56 into Manchester? That would make much more sense and could really help ease traffic flows.

I put all this to Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, in the House of Commons. Thanks to my badgering, he already knows all about the problems of the A556. He promised to look again at the plans and see if the new toll road could be extended to Junction 20 and so stop Knutsford becoming a huge motorway junction. Hopefully as many people as possible will write to him at the House of Commons to say the same thing. It's time for Knutsford to make its voice heard.