‘Sort it for once and for all’ – businesses slam councils over Manchester Airport link road closure
A business group that stands up as the voice of ‘white van man’ and the travel agency body ABTA have both spoken out this week over the continued closure of a major road that links south Manchester and Stockport to Manchester Airport.
The A555, which runs from the A6 near Hazel Grove to the M56 near the airport, was completed in 2018 and has repeatedly flooded during heavy rainfall.
Richard Slater, ABTA’s regional chairman, said: “The flooding has caused considerable disruption to local traffic and raised serious concerns about the design and quality of these roads.
“It is unacceptable that passengers, relying on these routes to reach the airport, are encountering such challenges so soon after the roads were completed.
“This situation demands a comprehensive review of the planning, design, and construction processes to ensure that the necessary measures are taken to resolve the issue and avoid similar problems in the future.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has also this week written to two local councils calling for urgent action to address the continual flooding of the A555 Manchester Airport Relief Road.
The road flooded again on New Year’s Eve, and remains closed more than a week later.
FSB Development Manager for Greater Manchester, Robert Downes, said: “If this was a one-off occurrence the business community may well be more forgiving, but it’s not. It happens every year and it just can’t be allowed to go on unchecked or treated as an acceptable problem.”
He said the road has flooded almost every year since it opened in 2018, two years behind schedule – itself partly due to flooding, which the FSB say “massively impacted” local businesses.
“This has become an annual occurrence during periods of heavy rainfall, and it’s simply unacceptable this newly built road, only completed in 2018, continues to be plagued by such a predictable problem in a city region famous for inclement weather. The repeated flooding of the A555 highlights serious design flaws and raises questions about the competency of those responsible for its design and final construction.
He added: “It’s hard not to feel that what’s become an annual occurrence here in GM would be tolerated in the South East. The A555 serves Manchester Airport, a vital regional and global gateway and key business hub for the North of England. Yet again and again it’s allowed to fall into an unusable state. Imagine that was Heathrow or Gatwick? It would have been put right years ago.
“The people of Stockport, Cheshire, and Greater Manchester deserve better. We cannot continue to be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to transport infrastructure investment. Stockport Council and Cheshire East Council must act now. They must secure the necessary funding and expertise to fix the A555 once and for all. This situation cannot be allowed to continue year after year.”
“The impact of these closures extends beyond mere inconvenience. Local businesses suffer as potential customers are deterred by the traffic chaos. Moreover, the increased congestion leads to a decline in air quality as thousands of vehicles are forced onto alternative routes, through urban areas that now simply can’t cope with the demand when a key piece of the road network goes down.
“This week, as we saw the final piece of the Bee Network jigsaw fall into place in Stockport, the A555’s extraordinary lack of resilience has been exposed once again. It’s fair to say it’s not been a great start for a flagship mayoral project when local bus services have been so badly affected.”
