THE Chancellor’s announcement on major road building in the north west is long overdue.

The journey across the Pennines at peak times is a long and irritating affair and improved other connections from Manchester to Sheffield may provide some light relief here.

The Wirral gets improved access with the M53 upgrade too.

‘Port Liverpool’ is supported and so is Manchester Airport with schemes.

Overall these and other proposals in the region will amount to around £800m of spend and support 600 jobs. This represents a good boost for the regional economy.

However some research has shown that building more roads encourages more road use and can just displace bottlenecks to other areas.

If Warrington is to retain the position as the leading logistics hub then achieving a balanced flow is essential.

This is why ‘Port Warrington’ and HS3, although concepts and some way off are essential in the logistics mix. Waterways and railways at one time represented the bulk of commercial traffic.

Heavy vehicles for heavy goods and better for the environment too.

Overall there appears to be some joined up thinking going on here, connecting successful major northern cities. We just need the taxpayer to pay for it now.

LAWRENCE Bellamy is associate dean at the University of Chester's Padgate campus and writes a regular column for the business pages.