MORE than 200 residents attended a public meeting to protest about plans for the new High Speed Two route in Culcheth.

Organised by the Friends of the Linear Park and Culcheth and Glazebury Parish Council, residents agreed to set up a plan to set up an action group.

Residents have been angered by the new ‘spur’ which was revealed earlier this month and would go through Culcheth and Glazebury, most noticably hitting the Linear Park as well as Taylor Business Park.

Speaking after the meeting, Clr Chris Vobe (Labour, Culcheth) said: “Local councillors, at borough and parish level, are united on this issue and have committed to working together to oppose the current route which would be extremely detrimental to Culcheth.

"It was said at the meeting, and it's absolutely true, that we must pull together, regardless of party politics, to fight for the best deal for our area.

“We all agree that the current proposals deliver little to no economic benefit to the villages and would see residents suffer immense disruption for no reward."

Clr Keith Bland is chairman of the parish council.

He said some residents were ‘worried to death’ by the plans.

He added: “It was a good meeting and we have had 50 people who have volunteered to be involved with an action group.

“These action groups have won before and they can do so in future too.

“My own view is that we need to get the route of the spur changed. Nobody was expecting it to be this close to Culcheth and the worst is the Linear Park.”

The route allows a link to Manchester and Manchester Airport, routing back to Wigan via Culcheth.

The campaign group is likely to be set up within the next two weeks.