MT 95/600

Location	National Archives
Title	Proposed development by Vauxhall Motors at Hooton, Wirral, Ches
Date range	1960
Catalogue	See entry

Context

In 1960 Vauxhall Motors lodged a planning application to build a car plant at Hooton on the Wirral. The application was passed to the Ministry of Transport, as it would be a major facility and the traffic generated would affect the nearby A41 trunk route.

This file contains the Ministry's deliberations, which reveal that they were mostly against it because of the traffic it would cause. However, the public inquiry went in its favour. The inspector declared that no alternative site could be found that was more suitable; the road system (in the view of the inspector if not the MoT) was adequate; and Ellesmere Port was about to get 20,000 people being moved over from Merseyside as overspill population who would be looking for work. The car plant was built and exists today adjacent to the M53.

Cheshire County Council recommended a new Class I route linking North Road with the A41, to be provided as a matter of urgency in advance of the car plant opening for business. The proposed road appears to be what is now the M53 between junctions 5 and 7 – ie, the Hooton Industrial Road. It opened as an unclassified grade-separated dual carriageway and was later upgraded to become M53.

Plans at the back of the file show a small diversion planned on a B-road near Little Stanney and a wide plan of the Manchester/Merseyside area showing existing trunk routes. There are no plans of the Hooton Industrial Road itself.

People with camera copies

None known.