A CRACKDOWN on trunk road building could be the death knell for the M62 "motorway from hell" widening.

Chancellor kenneth Clarke is understood to have ordered a block on major road schemes to pay for tax cuts.

This would affect more than 300 schemes, including the £301 million M62 relief road project.

The plan to build a parallel eight lane motorway next to the existing road south of Bury and into Worsley and Salford has caused a storm of protest.

Bury South Tory MP David Sumberg, who has led the campaign against the road, today said he hoped the report was correct.

Although government sources were dismissing them as "pre-budget speculation", no-one was denying them outright.

Mr Sumberg said: "If this is true I would be delighted."

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