Steve Nicholson says taking the Daresbury and Weston Point expressways to the M56 would double the cost of tolls

Jun 11 2009 by Mark Smith, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

CHANGING the route between the Mersey Gateway bridge and the M56 motorway could cost drivers twice the cost of paying a toll, the public inquiry heard.

Speaking under cross examination, project director Steve Nicholson said current plans offered the most direct route for drivers.

Questioning Mr Nicholson, Martin Ramsden of the Warrington Road Residents Association – which opposes the proposed route along the Central Expressway – asked him if he recalled a discussion held at an earlier meeting.

He said: “At a meeting held at Brook Chapel on April 8, do you remember telling (group member) Mark McLoughlin that it would in theory be OK to use the Daresbury and Weston Point expressways if it wasn’t for pinch points?”

Mr Nicholson said he did not remember using the term ‘pinch points’ but added: “I was leaving the meeting at 10pm in the evening, I was asked a question and there was a 15 second exchange.”

He added that the group’s proposals to take traffic around the Astmoor, Daresbury and Weston Point expressways would be more costly for drivers.

He said: “Traffic takes the most economic route, for us to look at your option means we would have to divert traffic away from that most economic route.

“That would be three miles extra distance and you’re looking at 50p per mile.

“So you’re asking people to pay the toll ‘twice’, because it’d be £1.40 and then £1.50 extra again for people to get to the motorway.”