 A MOTORWAY link road to bypass one of Merseyside's most heavily-congested routes will be scrapped because of a lack of funding, it was revealed last night. The £9m road between the Switch Island interchange and the A565 Southport Road would have solved 40-year traffic problems in the village of Thornton, near Crosby. It was also hoped a link road would help cut the severe traffic problems on Crosby Road North and South through Waterloo and Crosby itself. But last night, Sefton councillors said the bid will be pulled from the local transport plan because the bulk of Government funding for the region will now be poured into Liverpool in time for Capital of Culture year. Cllr Geoff Howe said: "This is not satisfactory at all. The roads around Thornton are full of queues even on Sunday afternoons. This relief road should have been done at the same time as the Knowsley Expressway. "We are now in a situation where Southport is becoming busier and busier because of so much regeneration, and there will be an increase of traffic to Liverpool in the run-up to 2008. "But we don't have the roads to take us there from this area of Sefton. "Now there are not many funds available for the road, and there are a lot of other areas ahead of us in the queue. Sefton has said it will try and do something from its own budget, but the council just won't have the money." To receive funding, Sefton's bid has to be approved by Merseyside's four other authorities before it can be submitted on the regional transport plan. But councillors attended a briefing meeting last week where they say they were told by council officers that the bid would not be approved by the rest of Merseyside because the money would be swallowed up by higher priority projects in Liverpool. Cllr Jack Colbert said: "This is disastrous, and it is down to the Government and the way it is distributing funding. "The council has put the bid in and done everything properly. The officers have done an excellent job in putting the plan together. | 
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