THE ten year saga of Lancaster's Western Bypass may take its final turn next week with planning chiefs ready to drive the final nail into its coffin. A report due to go before county planners tomorrow (March 1) recommends that the whole £54 million bypass scheme be thrown out of plans for the county's future. A panel set up to carry out a public enquiry into the bypass last May has concluded there is a need for transport improvements but has switched attention back to a Northern M6 link after ten years of debate on the subject.

That, according to councillors and campaigners in Lancaster, could spell the end of any new motorway link for the city.

The panel's report to the planning committee states: "The traffic benefits would be unlikely to outweigh the combined effects of the visual impact on the landscape and the estuary and the potential harm to nature conservation interests.

"The panel accepts that there could well be a need for improved links from Morecambe and Heysham to the M6 and that another river crossing would benefit the city's traffic movements.

"The panel, therefore, recommended the deletion of the Lancaster Western Bypass; and the investigation of a Northern Bypass with a new/improved junction with the M6."

That recommendation has left city council leader Stanley Henig sceptical about the city's chances of getting any new M6 link road at all.

He said: "I fear we are being messed about and that someone is playing games with us. When the best option is ignored and we are told to go back and look at a road that has already been rejected we must wonder what the point of the exercise is.

"In my view the Northern link is a non-starter but I recognise it would be slightly cheaper. It goes too close to where a lot of people live and its construction would cause maximum disruption to Lancaster for two or three years. I don't think the small benefits it would bring are worth that misery."

Lancaster Friends of the Earth campaigner also believes that will not see a new motorway link. He said: "In my view the policy modification is just a face-saving device and I firmly believe that neither road will ever be built.

"The road debate is now closed and it is time for the debate about traffic reduction to start."

But Morecambe's MP Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd has announced his support for the Northern link road proposals. He said: "The County Council plans were always extravagant and I know that in today's climate the only hope for completion of the link is to consider options that are not so expensive.

"Of course the Western Bypass proposal was a very good idea but I know from my contacts with Ministers that it is judged to be an enormously costly solution and very unlikely to get central government assistance without major modification. I believe the Northern link proposal is therefore the way forward and I strongly support the idea."

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