THOUSANDS of commuters face the miserable prospect of the Mersey tunnels being closed again, after union leaders announced a second strike date in the local government pensions dispute.
Schools, leisure centres, libraries and council services were last night starting preparations for major disruption during the one-day walkout across Merseyside and Cheshire, on April 27.
The GMB union announced the all-out action yesterday, less than a week after the last stoppage crippled council services and caused transport chaos in the UK's biggest strike in 80 years.
Business leaders estimated last Tuesday's action cost the region £10m, in particular because it closed both the Kingsway and Queensway tunnels between Liverpool and Wirral.
Insiders say the next stoppage will in all likelihood hit the tunnels again, as unions want pickets - expected to involve around 30,000 across the region - to cause a similar level of disruption.
Last night, neither GMB nor Unison, the largest of the 11 unions involved, could rule out a tunnels closure as a distinct possibility.
Merseytravel, whose director general Neil Scales came under fire for joining the strike last week, said it had not yet received formal notification of the date and could not comment.
Jack Stopforth, chief executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, hit out and said Merseytravel had a duty to keep at least one tunnel open to support private businesses.
He said: "With so much notice, Merseytravel has absolutely no excuse not to put contingency arrangements in place to keep at least one of the tunnels open.
"I think they have a duty to the business community to do that."
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