WE all know that traffic at Chequerbent roundabout, Westhoughton, is a nightmare of congestion for a couple of hours each morning and evening.

In the past four months, three schemes have been approved adding an additional 500 houses to the area, potentially pouring commuters and school-run mums and dads on to our busy road system.

The last of these was Lee Hall, the 300-property estate immediately south of the roundabout.

Bolton Council had argued that the development would aggravate congestion problems in Westhoughton, but the government’s inspector overruled this, saying that the potential extra delays would be 'barely discernible'.

These 500 houses are not yet built, the traffic from them is not yet running, but they will be soon enough.

Coming up on March 1 is the planning committee meeting which will consider the biggest of the schemes, Hulton Park, with 1,036 homes.

Potentially, the owners of these large, mainly detached properties will add 2,200 cars into the area.

The traffic assessment that the developer, Peel, has submitted has not been updated to take account of the extra traffic from these 500 new houses.

If there were to be a similar situation, where Bolton Council rejects the plan, and a government inspector is called in to adjudicate, the traffic estimates that they would be looking at would be lower than the actual picture.

It would not be acceptable to say that this scheme in isolation makes a barely discernible difference.

Each scheme might add a straw of traffic on to Westhoughton’s roads, but these straws add up, and Hulton Park will be the biggest one, which will surely break the camel’s back.

If you want to register your protest against this situation, you can email planning.control@bolton.gov.uk quoting the scheme reference number 000997/17 Hulton Park.

This must be submitted by Friday.

Phil Wood

Westhoughton