Crewe and Nantwich MP Connor Naismith says he has “demanded” an explanation for why the A51 Reaseheath bypass opening has been delayed yet again.
We revealed earlier this week how the long-awaited route may now not be open until at least June 2026.
The housing consortium who are constructing the road – a Section 106 condition of the 1,000 homes built at Kingsbourne – said the delays were down to waiting on decisions by Cheshire East Council.
Furious residents on Kingsbourne and in the village of Reaseheath say they have been left in the dark with no communication from authorities involved.
Now MP Mr Naismith has written to Cheshire East demanding an explanation for the “unacceptable” delay.
He told Nantwich News: “I requested an update on progress of the opening of the Reaseheath Bypass only this week, after a number of residents raised concerns with my office about its completion.
“The fact that we’re talking about a delay of over four years to the opening of this key piece of infrastructure, without a basic level of transparency over what is causing this delay, is unacceptable.
“I am now demanding that Cheshire East Highways very clearly explain what is going on and give residents some confidence that there will be no further delay.”
A spokesperson for the Kingsbourne consortium told us on Thursday: “The A51 works have been delayed while we await approval on further details from the Highway Authority.
“We continue to work closely with Cheshire East Council to progress this. Completion is now expected by June 2026.”
We have approached Cheshire East Council and formally wrote to the chair and vice chair of the highways committee, Councillors Mark Goldsmith and Liz Braithwaite, asking for their reaction and statement.
Two days later, we have received nothing from them.
There have been road closures every evening on the A51 at Reaseheath, with some works taking place.
The new bypass was originally scheduled to open in February 2022.
When it opens, it will connect the Kingsbourne development to the A51 at Reaseheath, designed to free up the bottleneck of traffic leaving the estate on Waterlode.
But some residents fear it will also create a rat-run for traffic coming from Chester and into the town centre.
Kevin Wood. Were you born stupid or does it take practice? Comments about a local road suddenly brings us to a Rochdale grooming gang shows that the reason this country is going to the dogs are attitudes like yours. No doubt the recent events which show similar gangs working in London at the very highest level won’t attract hateful comments from you. Deform indeed.
Judging by the photo, it’s nothing a good set of bolt cutters can’t solve. Show some gumption, someone on that estate.
Labour Council, Labour Councillor, go figure.
Why EXACTLY is the opening delayed until June 2026? I can see no reason for this to be kept a secret…
… without that information, it can only be assumed that the builders are indeed deliberately delaying until the last House is sold.
I’ve said it previously that this new section of road will not open until they have sold the very last house on the kings bourne estate.
Property developers are not stupid, they do this all the time.
If that road would have opened when it was supposed to, they would have struggled to sell the new houses and would have had to significantly reduce the selling costs of the new houses.
When this ridiculous road is finally opened you can be sure that property prices around that area will go down, people will try to sell those houses, but who the heck is going to want to live nextdoor to all that heavy traffic.
They build a beautiful new estate, then destroy it by bringing in potentially loads of heavy traffic.
CEC are also hugely to blame for allowing this in the first place.
Just wait until the school opens in there, all those lovely houses and the nice quiet estate will be chaos.
The MP demands answers into a road delayed 5+ years under a Labour council but voted against a grooming gangs inquiry?
Labour in action
Smells of corruption, is someone being paid to delay the opening which is 4 years late?
I had a letter from MP Connor Naismith saying he had been in talks with Royal Mail to improve mail deliveries in it he said he had fixed the problem, my letters still almost come once per week, so I don’t think he is going to do much here!
We moved into our Redrow home April 2019, and informed the bypass would be open in 3 years. Soon it will be 7 years, unbelievable.
Absolute bloody joke