Call for slice of £500m HS2 funding for M61 junction 7

This comes after around £500m was allocated to the North West by the government from the now cancelled HS2 superfast railway link between Birmingham and Manchester.

Bolton West MP Chris Green says that on a recent visit to Bolton Interchange by rail minister Huw Merriman he called for some of the money to be spent on a new junction for the M61.

Mr Green said: “He was here around two weeks ago and although he has the rail portfolio that also includes regional infrastructure, so he is part of the ministerial mix.

“I have often asked for the junction to be delivered so this really was part of raising that and keeping it on the agenda.”

The area around De Havilland Way is notoriously busy (Image: Newsquest)

Funds were redirected all over the country after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak controversially took the decision to cancel the northern HS2 leg from Birmingham to Manchester last autumn.

Instead, the money is set to be reallocated on improving transport links and infrastructure across the north of England.

One suggestion had been to extend the Metrolink tram network to Bolton, which appeared to have been listed on the government’s website.

Chris Green with rail minister Huw Merriman (Image: Office of Chris Green MP)

But within days Mr Sunak admitted that this, along with several other projects around the country, had been intended simply to be “illustrative” of what the money could be used for.

But Mr Green has suggested that a new junction on the M61 is a more sorely needed infrastructure improvement for people in his area.

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Since it was first built the M61 has long been missing a “junction 7”, which would have helped relieve traffic in Westhoughton, Horwich and Chorley. 

The motorway already has a junction 6 and 8 and has long been missing a junction 7, which had originally been intended.

But in the years since, traffic has been of huge concern in the areas around the M61 on the outskirts of Bolton, particularly around De Havilland Way.

Mr Green said: “There has been a huge amount of pressure for people on the local roads in Horwich so that junction would just take a lot of that pressure off because the congestion around it is horrendous.”