A CHARITY which pushes for councils to look at traffic schemes has said the Highways Agency has admitted the new A556 bypass would increase air pollution in the area.

Campaign for Better Transport – an independent charity that aims to provide practical solutions to transport problems – has produced a report which it has submitted to Highways Agency bosses regarding issues about the proposed new road.

Highways Agency bosses are working on the project, which the agency hopes to start work on in late 2014.

But the charity said it had discovered that the agency’s assessments set out how the bypass and widening project would increase air pollution across a wide area.

On its website the charity highlighted a statement in the agency’s environmental statement, which stated: “The scheme would attract more traffic than the existing A556, and would change traffic flows on other roads in the wider surrounding area.

“Air pollution at some properties near the new road and on the strategic route from the M6 south of the scheme into Manchester (via the M56) would increase to concentrations above the air quality thresholds as result of this scheme.

“The expected overall effects of the scheme on air quality are classified as significant adverse.”

In it’s 24-page response to the agency, the charity said the solution proposed for the road was ‘out of proportion’ and ‘very damaging’.

“A large bypass through greenfield land that includes sensitive areas is a hugely over-engineered response to the traffic problems that may exist on the A556,” it said.

“Similar plans were rejected in the past for being too environmentally damaging, and the harm it would cause to the green belt, agricultural land, woods and valuable wetland habitats would still be unacceptable.”