TRANSPORT secretary Chris Grayling visited the borough as part of a tour of the North West.

The minister was at the Fat Pig restaurant in Westhoughton to talk about traffic problems around the Chequerbent roundabout, among other issues.

It was particularly timely as a £132m bid to deliver a new east-west road network across Bolton and Wigan took a major step forward recently, as the government gave it the first stage of approval.

If ultimately successful then cash from the Housing Infrastructure Forward Fund will deliver at least nine infrastructure projects, including Westhoughton Bypass.

The fund has been created by the government in order to make more land suitable for housing and employment purposes by mitigating the impact of the increased traffic brought by development.

Mr Grayling said: “We are very keen to make sure we support schemes that unlock housing from the Housing Infrastructure Forward Fund and money I’m putting into the system.”

The Conservative politician added that he was sure that upgrades to the A-roads, bypasses and carriageways would help to bring more brownfield land forward for development over the coming years.

But while he said that the government wants to provide the infrastructure that would enable more housing to be built “in and around Bolton”, he stopped short of personally backing the joint Bolton-Wigan bid.

He said: “I would never say I’m giving backing to anything.

But one of the things about being Transport Secretary is you get to understand the context and the needs and get the informed views.

“I’m aware there’s a strong push for it, but I’m not here to back or not back anything.

“ I’m always keen to see the local authority and local community highlight where the need is, so we can target money in the best possible places — It’s a learning exercise.”

But he added that he was “very sympathetic” to the need to improve the roads in areas where there were high levels of congestion.”

Bolton and Wigan Council’s joint bid for £132m of Housing Infrastructure Forward Fun cash was one of only four in Greater Manchester to progress to the next stage - and is by far the biggest.

As well as the Westhoughton bypass the money would also fund at least eight other schemes, including roads to the east and south of Atherton and south of Hindley.

It would also continue to link the rod from Atherleigh Way to support the delivery of additional sites through to the M61 in Bolton.

This would enable and estimate 12,000 new homes to be built in the coming years Bolton Council Ebrahim Adia has described the bypass as being “essential” to alleviate additional strain on roads development would bring and in the west of the borough and would ease congestion in the west of the borough.

While in the region Mr Grayling also visited the East Lancs Railway in Bury and the George H Carnall Leisure Centre Car Park , in Urmston, Trafford.