A 'GREEN' group is warning that a £250 million distribution and manufacturing park scheme earmarked for Carrington will cause traffic chaos.

The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) spoke out after developers released figures for the number of road journeys the rail-linked centre would generate.

It is estimated around 1,000 HGVs would travel to and from the site each day, while there would be another 5,000 car and van journeys made by staff and firms to and from the site. Action would be taken to ensure all HGVs used the motorway and approached the site from Carrington Spur.

Arthur Jurgens, the chairman of Trafford CPRE, says the extra traffic will have a devastating effect on the area.

"This will bring the motorway to a halt and there would also be 10,000 journeys a day involving other vehicles. This will be an absolute disaster. Partington will be so crowded that people won't be able to travel to work and buses won't run normally.

"There will be total gridlock in Partington and to a lesser extent in Broadheath, Sale, Flixton and Urmston."

The extra traffic is on top of an estimated 2,000 journeys a day when a council depot is opened in Carrington.

But a spokesman for Burford Group, the joint developers with Shell UK, says the HGV estimate "is based on fairly conservative assumptions about the take-up of rail in the early years and would most provably be lower, as congestion and Government policy will make rail more competitive."

He adds: "There would be significant vehicular movement but this happens wherever this type of development is located. The Carrington site offers the opportunity to keep these movements to a minimum and will avoid the need to rely on using residential roads to access and egress the site."

The developers and CPRE are also at loggerheads over estimates on the number of jobs the centre would generate. Shell and Burford reckon it could be as high as 11,000, But Mr Jurgens believes the plant may only employ around 100 people.

The interchange proposals have been included in the review of the Unitary Development Plan that is currently taking place..