A £20m link road connecting the M62 with key industrial and distribution hubs in south Heywood has officially been opened. Named ‘Queen Elizabeth Way’, the 2.2km stretch between Junction 19 and Pilsworth Road is expected to remove thousands of HGVs from Heywood town centre every year.
As well as paving the way for future investment in the area - including the ‘Atom Valley’ mayoral development zone and Russell's 1,000 home South Heywood Masterplan - local leaders say it will slash journey times and cut business costs. The road opens to the public today (Thursday), after it was formally launched by the Mayor of Rochdale, Coun Ali Ahmed and council leader Neil Emmott at a special ceremony on Tuesday.
In his speech, Coun Emmott said the cutting of the ribbon represented ‘much more than just a road opening’. He said: “It represents the investment we are making and the commitment we have to the borough.
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"We are known for being one of the best connected boroughs and this opening of Queen Elizabeth II Way means we are now even better connected.”According to figures from the council’s ‘development partner’ Russells, the new road should remove up to 35,7770 HGVs from Heywood town centre each year.
The assessment also suggests that the new road could also lead to a reduction in accidents - protecting lives and saving millions of pounds in the long term. Coun Emmott told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the ‘first priority’ of the road was to reduce ‘the menace’ of HGVs travelling through Heywood, Birch and Bowlee.
“Those communities have suffered quite dramatically,” he said. "What we have had since the invention of sat nav is HGVs coming off the motorway system to try and avoid Simister island, they come either through Heywood, or come up Heywood Old Road, through Birch and Bowlee, because sat nav has told them to do that.”
He explained that a long-standing problem had been lorry drivers seeking a shortcut to Heywood Distribution Park whenever a bottleneck forms at Simister island (Junction 18). "This would be a direct route from the M62 to Heywood Distribution Park,” he added.
Plans for the road were fiercely opposed by local campaigners who objected to the sacrifice of green belt land needed for the development. Coun Emmott agreed this was ‘lamentable’ but says the council had to stop HGVs coming through local communities.
“It’s been the top of our agenda for many, many years in terms of giving some relief to local people,” he said. “It won’t be developed in an impersonal, bland way it will be built in a way that tries to conserve as much green space as possible. We need this link road, it’s vital that we have this.”
As well as addressing old problems, Coun Emmott is also looking to the future - and the ‘Atom Valley’ mayoral development zone, which leaders say will bring 20,000 jobs to the area and has been described as the region's next 'industrial revolution hub'. This includes the proposed Northern Gateway site which straddles Rochdale and Bury near the M66 and M62.
Coun Emmott said the council wanted to bring ‘high paid, high skilled jobs’ and was already working with local colleges to ensure local people had the skills to make the most of those opportunities. “It’s all part of a big picture, a great big mosaic where we’re involving lots of different partners in order to make sure those jobs go to local people and they’ve got the skills to do them.”
The road is also a key part of unlocking the huge - and controversial - South Heywood development, which includes up to 1,000 new homes. Coun Emmott said the area needed new homes and more people living in the area would bring prosperity - boosting local businesses and aiding the regeneration of both Middleton and Heywood town centres.
Daniel Kershaw, director at Russells, added: “To see the link road finally operational after 12 years of working on the project is extremely rewarding. Russells and Rochdale Borough Council have worked together on this as a collaboration.
"The public private partnership has enabled us to deliver something that is genuinely beneficial for the local area, not just for the future development that we are bringing forward but for the existing businesses, this is transformational."
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