MP MIKE Hall has made a plea in Parliament for the Government to give the green light to the proposed new Mersey Gateway.

The member for Weaver Vale told the House of Commons that the new bridge would be vital to ensure the continued economic prosperity of the region.

He said: 'The economic benefits for the region of a new Mersey crossing would be substantial. We need a new strategic north-south transport link. It would bring 7,000 jobs to the area and the transport economic benefits are forecast as £1.4 billion.

'The Silver Jubilee Bridge carries 90,000 vehicles across the Mersey every day, but only 20% of those are local vehicle movements. It is clearly a vastly over-used strategic link, so we need a second crossing.

'The estimated costs for the second crossing are modest: £250m. If it was free to use - my preferred option - we should need a private finance initiative credit of £500m over 30 years.