TRAFFIC problems were again top of the agenda at a working party meeting held to discuss the Winnington Urban Village application.

A meeting of the Northwich Area Working Group was held on Wednesday to discuss proposals to build 1,200 houses on old industrial land in Winnington.

A number of councillors spoke out about their fears that the village could exasperate traffic problems in some areas of Northwich if it got the go-ahead.

Many councillors called for a new bridge to ease the situation, after a county council spokesman admitted there could be worse to come on Winnington Swing Bridge.

David Thomas, from the highways department, said: 'As a result of the traffic generated from the proposals included in the Northwich Vision [a plan to improve the town - see page 14], the traffic will get worse.'

But he promised: 'It will not be gridlock. Based on the information I have available, it will work - but I am not a prophet.'

Cllr Jeffery Langham (Northwich Witton on Vale Royal) laughed off the idea of a bridge being built and said: 'I think it is as likely as turkeys voting for Christmas!'

The main concern of the meeting was whether the sustainable traffic methods put forward by the Urban Village Consortium

could work. It says the essence of an urban village is to try to promote other modes of transport, but many councillors did not accept people will stop using their cars.

Cllr Venca Frame (Barnton) is concerned traffic problems in Barnton would increase.

She added: 'Planners say the new urban village bus service, which will come through Barnton, will run every 10 minutes, but just because it may work on their computer models that does not mean to say that it will work in practice.'

Cllr Tony Lawrenson, whose ward covers Rudheath, said of the likelihood of people not using their cars: 'You can forget that, it's a red herring - the consortium won't be getting rid of the traffic problems from what I have heard today.'

In response, councillors were told the services from the urban village to the town centre would be subsidised by the developers for the first three years and would be introduced straight away before people got used to other modes of transport.

Richard Ellison, head of planning and building control at Vale Royal Borough Council, pointed to the Kingsmead development.

He said: 'More or less everything that developers said would happen and on the time scale they said it would, has occurred.'

The members' comments will be passed on to Vale Royal Borough Council before the planning application is heard next week. As a result of last week's meeting the decision on whether the urban village will get the go-ahead has been put back a month.

The planning application was due to be heard on Tuesday, but after councillors asked for an independent assessment of the traffic considerations, the hearing has now been put back to December 16 in order for the survey to be carried out.