MERSEYSIDE'S transport blueprint was in tatters last night as another major anti-congestion scheme was scrapped - but it means the city centre's Royal Liverpool University Hospital can now be re-built.
Council leader Warren Bradley announced he would ditch a £12. 5m by-pass at Hall Lane, because health managers want the land for the new £478m Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
Royal chairman Roger James, who threatened to move out of the city if the road went ahead, yesterday commended Cllr Bradley's courage in choosing residents' health over traffic needs.
But transport and business leaders said they were disappointed at the decision to scrap the by-pass, which was first mooted 25 years ago.
They say it will set back anti-congestion plans by years and urged the council to find an alternative to stop a bottleneck developing in Kensington before 2008.
The road is the second major scheme to bite the dust out of four outlined in Merseyside's 2001 Local Transport Plan (LTP). Merseytram collapsed after government withdrew £175m last year.
The by-pass would have carried between 30,000 and 40,000 vehicles a day, and is described in the 2006 draft LTP as "critical" to the efficient movement of freight in and out of the city centre.
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