Setback for £36m Stafford bypass

The proposed £36 million bypass designed to ease congestion around Stafford is now in the balance amid a series of Government cuts.

Staffordshire County Council's controversial Stafford Western Access Scheme is now subject to a review and the authority has been told to go back to the drawing board and to submit fresh plans by January.

The scheme aims to link Newport Road with the A34 at Foregate Street, via Doxey, in order to reduce traffic and cater for up to 4,000 new homes which could be built in the area.

If the authority manages to meet the January deadline, only then will it be allowed to bid for a slice of a new £600m government cash pot for council projects.

But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond warned: "This will not be enough to fund all of the schemes proposed by local authorities."

Plans for a £70 million extension of the M6 Toll Road to link with Shropshire's M54 have been effectively scrapped.

The scheme is to be reviewed "to ensure the design is the best possible, and to see if there are better ways to sequence the work."

And a multi-million pound scheme to open the hard shoulder during peak times on the M6 between Junctions 10a, Wolverhampton, to 13, Stafford, faces a similar fate.

Mr Hammond said it will "not enter construction until at least 2015" - meaning it will not see any funding in the lifetime of this Parliament.

Walsall Council's bid to the Department for Transport for £35m to upgrade Bentley Mill Way and Bentley Road South is also subject to a review.

But a £202m scheme to use the hard shoulder on the M6 between junctions five for Castle Bromwich and eight for the M5 has been given the green light. It is one of 16 projects to have survived the Government's cost-cutting axe. Eight others were confirmed in last week's spending review, including a £127m scheme to extend the Midland Metro in Birmingham city centre.

Mr Hammond said the "essential investments" would cut congestion, improve journey times and drive economic growth."

The schemes - many of which have been years in development - were earmarked to go ahead under the last Labour government but were subject to review by the coalition while it sought to tackle the UK's record deficit.

By Sunita Patel