Cheshire East accepts £23m for Middlewich Bypass
Councillors voted on Wednesday to accept the first tranche of financial support from the Department for Transport for the project, acknowledging that the total funds of £47m are less than half of the £98m required for the scheme.
The 1.6-mile Middlewich Eastern Bypass is meant to ease traffic and enhance safety in Middlewich town centre. Cheshire East Council has been advocating for the project since taking it over from developer Pochin in 2016.
That £98m cost figure is liable to change as well, with a council report noting that it was based on a summer 2025 start of work by contractor Balfour Beatty. That was contingent on the government granting the money to the council in February, a timeframe that was not ultimately met.
A revised cost estimate will come before the council in November for review. At that point, the council will make a judgment call on whether it wants to continue with the project or to cut its losses – in this case, the £27m already sunk into the scheme. Most of that money is funded through prudential borrowing.
It is worth noting that accepting this initial £23m from the DfT does not obligate the council to move forward with the project.
If the council progresses the plan, it will receive £22.9m from the DfT in the 2026/2027 financial year and £400,000 the year after.
Work could begin on the bypass in spring 2026, with construction anticipated to take 30 months.
The Middlewich Eastern Bypass has been a troubled project from the start. Its origins are as a developer-led project by Pochin. The developer worked on the project from 2008 to 2014.
Cheshire East Council took over in 2016 and has led the design, planning, land assembly, and business case generation ever since.
The council has stated that the Middlewich Eastern Bypass would enable the delivery of 1,950 homes and the creation of 6,500 jobs in the area.
Any potential overspends on this scheme would fall to the incoming Combined Authority to sort out, which would be an unwelcome situation for them.
By WayFay
The Council’s own Business Case says that, using DfT metrics, the scheme represents low value for money
By Anonymous
How on earth can it cost £98 million to construct 1.6 miles of road and two bridges. Utter nonsense.
By Anonymous
‘ease traffic’ what nonesense; they’ll infill the land up to this new road and then start looking to build another, just like Hereford.
By John Traffic
I find it very frustrating that funds are so much easier to find for these road improvement schemes than rail / transit projects. Public money would be much better spent on more sustainable projects.
By Almoravid
It’s not going to make much difference in middlwich because most of the traffic goes to winsford and towards Leighton hospital and it just going to feed traffic into sandbach. I bet you that something will happen to the funding and go for something else. Watch this space because Cheshire east will find some excuse
By Charles Brindley
£98m for 1.6 miles of road across primarily farmland – are they building to motorway standard?!
By Anonymous
All i can say about the so called middlewich by pass seeing is believing. Something will go pear shaped it’s for middlewich things never go right for our town especially with Cheshire east in charge. £98 million for 1.6 miles of road its a joke are we having a gold leaf road.
By Anonymous
In the context of the undeniable climate crisis there is no circumstance in which new road capacity is justified.
By Anonymous
1950 homes creates more cars and ultimately you’re back to square one
By Anonymous
£23 million and still no train station or leisure facilities… this town has been pillaged more than any other in Cheshire. Rewarded with a road that will be gridlocked daily with people getting of the blocked M6
By Anonymous
While the rest of the roads across East Cheshire fall into disrepair the lunatics continue to run the asylum.
By Alan Gibbs
They got a bypass m6
By Anonymous
“The council has stated that the Middlewich Eastern Bypass would enable the delivery of 1,950 homes and the creation of 6,500 jobs”.
1/ The purpose of a bypass is to reduce traffic congestion, full stop.
2/ This country is already overpopulated, so why build another 1,950 homes on what will be prime farming land when what we really need is more home-grown food production to feed the ever growing population ?
3/ How is this bypass going to “create” 6,500 jobs ? Fanciful political thinking.
4/ If Ches. East’s record is anything to go by, this bypass (while needed) will be delivered both late & over-budget … with tax payers once again picking up the tab.
By Anonymous
For these sums of money you could build a 2 mile flyover over all of Middlewich !
By Neville
There’s no mention of any new schools, or doctors, or dentists, just 1950 new homes which will contain 1950 new families who will have at least 2 cars each. The new families will ultimately need a school, a doctor, or a dentist. They will be paying council tax and rates of course. Oh ! and the 6,500 new jobs will be gone before the last brick is laid. Just saying.
By S.Jones
Socialist schools, doctors, dentists are history. Folk must now take out private insurance and drive to where these services are provided privately. Folk who live in prosperous green belt areas all have cars. Just like in the USA. Poor folk live in inner-cities where charity provides. No more Nanny State.
By Anonymous
We’re on a road to nowhere.
By D. Byrne
£98m for 1.6 miles??? Most of it already built? All farmland? One canal to cross? Beyond bonkers!!!
By Anonymous
Total waste of money. It might relieve Lewin Street and Leadsmithy Street but all the other roads in and through Middlewich only be made worse. They call it a bypass ……… it is just a scheme to give access to more houses. It will bypass a fraction of the strangled town.
By Duncan Goodwin
If this was town in Sussex or similar in the South of England it would have been built a long time ago . The size of the trucks and the volume of heavy traffic passing through the little town of Middlewich and especially when traffis has to be diverted off the M6 into Middlewich is on the conciouses of all planners . Midpoint 18 is also expanding so that can only impact on the amount of heavy goods vehicles using the area.
By Anonymous
Aka infill development in the Green Belt once it’s completed!
By Anonymous
Were will it start and Wer will the bypass come out
By Anonymous
Why do public bodies who own these schemes never publish a breakdown of where the costs are attributed to? How much of this £98M spend goes into the pockets of the legal profession in the planning stages and the production of environmental impact reports? How much goes to land acquisition and compensation of land owners? And how much actually goes into the physical construction costs i.e. bricks, mortar, concrete, man hours, plant costs etc? My guess….the legal profession takes a hefty levy of these costs. Then the bats……
By C.Jones
This does not solve the congestion problem. Its another white elephant con. Sandbach is currently gridlocked and impassable in rush hours already due to the Ansa plant that should never have been built.
By Rob Gillman
It’s going to be hell going down Cledford land and having to drive across the bypass, especially during rush our, I expect you’ll be sat there for ages waiting for a gap in the traffic to get across. Could a small bridge be installed instead. Many thanks
By Anonymous