CAUTION is being urged after a funding bid was finally given the go-ahead following 'an extremely lengthy' process.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has put together a bid for a £48 million slice of levelling-up funding from the Government.

The money would have a transformative effect on Northwich and its surrounding area and would include the building of a new bridge at Winnington.

Speaking at the meeting of the town council on Monday, June 6, Cllr Andrew Cooper welcomed news the bid was ready to be submitted.

“We’re quite restricted at the moment as to what we can say about the details of the bid,” he said.

“But following an extremely long process, CWAC are in the process of preparing a bid to the levelling-up fund for about £48 million.

“This money is to cover a number of improvements along the Winnington corridor route, including the replacement bridge.

“It’s been a long process, as you know – we started out in 2015 in our manifesto and we as a town council adopted a Northwich neighbourhood plan which introduced that a new bridge would be required.

“That was strengthened by CWAC in its local plan in 2019 and since then there has been several strategic business cases.

“This is the kind of long-term commitment you’ve got to put into this type of construction.”

However, Cllr Cooper said it was important the public appreciated this is a funding process and not a formality.

“We still might not be successful,” he added.

“This is a lot of money we are asking for and it may well be the Government decides it would rather put that money somewhere else, but we shall see.

“We’ve got all the evidence in place, and we’ve done everything we can possibly do to make it a success.”

The funding bid has to be submitted to the Government by July 5 with the outcome likely to be known at some point in October.