Cheshire East Council is this week expected to approve the acceptance of nearly £23.5 million funding from the government towards the Middlewich Bypass scheme.

The grant represents the first tranche of government funding towards the long-awaited road.

Further grants of £22.876 million and £428,000 are expected in 2026/27 and 2027/28, respectively.

The matter will be discussed at Wednesday's (August 6) meeting of the corporate policy committee as the government deadline for formal acceptance of the funding is August 13.

A report to Wednesday's meeting says: "Acceptance of this initial grant allocation does not compel the council to deliver the scheme or accept future grants.

"Future decisions will be sought from full council and the highways and transport committee once an updated target cost estimate is known, and the scheme can demonstrate affordability."

It continues: "If the council does not accept the 2025/26 grant or defers the decision such that the Department for Transport (DfT) return deadline cannot be met, DfT may withdraw their grant funding towards the MEB.

The matter will be discussed at Wednesday's (August 6) meeting of the corporate policy committee. (Photo: Cheshire East Council)

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"As a result, the scheme would be unaffordable and could not proceed.

"Consequently, the council would need to write-off about £27 million of sunk costs to revenue.

"As the £27 million write-off to revenue would be greater than available general fund balance of £6.3 million, this would render the 2025/26 revenue budget illegal, requiring the section 151 officer to issue a section 114 notice."

The letter from the DfT to the council states the department will provide a maximum of £48.037 million towards an estimated total scheme cost of £97.941 million.

It continues: "Cheshire East Council is solely responsible for meeting any expenditure over and above this maximum amount."

The long awaited road has been a long time in the making. (Photo: Cheshire East Council)

But the £97 million estimate for the scheme was based on the government giving it the go-ahead in February.

The government delay has added to the projected cost.

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The council officer's report to the corporate policy committee states: "This delay has caused inflationary pressures and this, along with the need to repeat some contract preparation works, has resulted in a significant increase in the scheme cost estimate.

"However, now that the DfT decision has been announced, a critical piece of work is underway to update the contractors target cost for construction based on a spring 2026 start.

"Consequently, a new contractors cost for the scheme will be available from November 2025.

"A decision to proceed with the construction of the scheme will be taken only after we have a contractors cost."

The corporate policy committee meeting takes place at 5.30pm on Wednesday, August 6, at Macclesfield Town Hall.

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