IT was the news nobody thought would ever come.

But funding has finally been approved for the Western Link scheme.

In short, this new road will link the north of the town to the south, thereby allowing commuters to skip the town centre.

It should help free up the gridlocked rush hour commute which pretty much everyone in Warrington can agree has to stop.

The council also say it is crucial to the future of the town and in the current climate, the local plan.

The road will not only help to cope with the new housing planned over the next two decades – the land it allows access to could crucially see it help more than 20,000 homes happen.

The scale of the development plans for the land surrounding the Western Link had not been stated before the Government made the announcement on Wednesday.

And for it to be 20,000 is quite staggering.

So whether this road is a bypass or merely a conduit to house building remains to be seen.

And while the money promised by Government makes the scheme much more of a reality, building will still be subject to planning approval.

The Government put an ambitious 2021 target for work to start but seeing how long it has taken for the Centre Park link road work to start, that would seem unlikely.

Because with the Western Link there is sure to be strong opposition, particularly from residents of Penketh and Great Sankey who fear what the building work will mean for them.

READ > £212m Western Link bypass to tackle congestion WILL be built

One other note of caution.

But just weeks before a previous general election, George Osborne came to town to announce that Warrington residents would get free crossings of the new Mersey Gateway bridge.

Now we all know what happened there.

So during one of the biggest political crises for decades, which could still end up with a snap general election some time soon, it is perhaps not too cynical to wonder about the timing of the announcement – which has been delayed for around a year.