Roundabout threat to Westy homes plan (From Warrington Guardian)

Roundabout threat to Westy homes plan

CONFLICTING legal advice threatened to put a spanner in the works for plans to build nearly 500 homes in Westy.

Blueprints to build 450 new homes, industrial units and a neighbourhood centre at the former New World site on Thelwall Lane went before councillors last Wednesday.

But a hitch over how people will get to the development threatened the scheme.

The cause of the problem is a new roundabout.

When a roundabout is installed, Warrington Borough Council's highways department insists on an anti-skid surface being put down 50 metres either side of the roundabout to keep the road safe.

But the road on one side is owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, which doesn't want its land to be used due to maintenance worries.

Lawyers for the developers and objectors (Manchester Ship Canal Company) both came to different conclusions but after obtaining a third lot of advice, the council will plough ahead.

Borough council solicitor John Holmes said he was confident that the scheme could progress with the new roundabout as the point of access.

He said: "Next to this, Mr Rooney and metatarsal are simple problems!"

The application was passed with the stipulation that the developers pay for the roadworks and that the anti-skid surface is maintained.