Key date in the quest for a huge Wigan link road pay-out

The next stage of a funding bid for major infrastructure vital to the town hall’s housing masterplan could be signed off tomorrow.
Work is well under way on the Westwood Park to Goose Green section of the roadWork is well under way on the Westwood Park to Goose Green section of the road
Work is well under way on the Westwood Park to Goose Green section of the road

Council bosses in Wigan and Bolton will submit a business case to support an application for £132m from central government.

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The cash would bring forward the road projects linking junction 26 of the M6 and junction 5 of the M61.

Creating the east-west link would “unlock” key strategic sites that could enable the development of 9,000 homes, the town hall has said.

The local authorities submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI) bid for the Housing and Infrastructure Fund (HIF) last year. They have now been invited to submit a business case, the next phase of the process, according to a report tabled for cabinet members this week.

If approval is granted by the council’s executive, the application will be submitted in March.

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Earlier this month the council unveiled earmarked sites across Wigan borough for housing and industrial development as part of the GM spatial framework, outlining that around 21,000 homes will be built in the next two decades.

Around 60 per cent of these homes will be on brownfield sites, many of which will be served by the infrastructure funded through the HIF.

Town hall bosses say if the infrastructure projects are in place, key strategic sites will be unlocked, meaning developers will then submit plans for the land.

Some of the projects that form part of the east-west road link already have funds earmarked for them, such as the A49, M58 and Phoenix Way schemes.

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The report tabled for tomorrow’s cabinet meeting reads: “The benefits of an east-west link road have been recognised by Bolton and Wigan for well over 30 years, and as such both councils have worked separately but in a collaborative and transparent way to try to bring forward this infrastructure through a market led approach.”

HIF is a government capital grant programme of up to £5.5bn, which will help to deliver up to 100,000 new homes in England.

“The construction of the link road will enable the construction of an estimated 12,960 new homes and 183,096 sqm of employment space across both boroughs with an estimated 8,918 constructed in Wigan. The total develop-able area of land will be 772.2ha, of which 240.91ha will be brownfield land,” the report adds.

The road link will connect nine “core housing” sites, amounting to an estimated 7,245 houses.

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A further 46 ‘non-core’ sites with an estimated 1,673 units will also “directly benefit”.

The core sites are: the former Pemberton Colliery; Westwood Park; Phoenix Way; Wigan Enterprise Park; South of Hindley; Northleigh Park; West of Gibfield; South of Atherton and East of Atherton.

The overall cost of the project is estimated to be £220m, with the council contributing £19.3m, the private sector £35m, section 106 funds £3.2m along with the £131.8m from the HIF. A further £30.5m of “other public sector” funding was included in the report’s figures.

If the bid is not successful, it is understood the council would have to continue with a piecemeal approach to delivering the individual parts of the link road, which would take considerably more time than if the the funding is in place all at once.

The houses could generate an estimated £13.6m in council tax income per year, the report adds.