AN URGENT bid to avert a high court challenge which is threatening to delay progress on the long awaited Alderley Edge bypass is underway.

Crucial talks are taking place to resolve a legal dispute and avoid a long drawn out high court battle.

Cheshire County Council said this week it was "hopeful" the legal wrangle will be resolved before June 3 when the case is due to go before the High Court in London.

The legal threat followed a complaint by a Nether Alderley resident who alleged compulsory purchase order procedures were flawed.

Businessman David Stagg of Bollington Lane made the challenge after details of the CPOs were published six weeks before the orders were due to be signed off. It led to fears the legal hitch could delay the £59.8 million project by up to a year.

Highways spokesman Andy Buckley said: "A legal challenge is due to be heard in the high court on June 3 but we are keen to discuss the issues which have been raised.

"We are due to hold talks and hope to resolve the issues prior to the scheduled court hearing."

Initial work on the three and a half mile bypass which was planned more than half a century ago to relieve traffic congestion in Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley was due to start in Spring 08.

Mr Stagg told the Express earlier requests for meetings with both the borough and county councils had been declined.

He said; "The point I would make is that on numerous occasions in writing and on the telephone I have requested meetings with Macclesfield Borough Council and Cheshire County Council to discuss site specific issues and these requests have been refused over a number of months.

"I am favour of the bypass and we hope that sense will prevail."

Since the challenge Tatton MP George Osborne has intervened to avoid unnecessary delay to the project.

He spoke to Mr Stagg and has raised concerns with Secretary of State for Transport Ruth Kelly.

He said:" The whole community wants this bypass to go ahead, especially as it has been such a struggle. The point about this bypass is that not only is it desperately needed, but the whole community agrees it’s needed. It’s an agreed route and everyone’s happy and everyone agrees we need one.

"We have been trying since 1930 and I am determined we are going to get it built in the next couple of years."

He added: "His [Mr Stagg’s] case may need to be heard - that’s why we have these procedures - but we want to make sure the funding doesn’t disappear.

"We have all the funding agreed and I share fears that if we have to delay then the Government will withdraw the funding."

Work on the bypass was due to start as soon as it received the final financial authority from the Secretary of State for Transport.

But further delays could add inflationary pressures to the project and leave it on the shelf.

David Stagg has been involved in a legal clash with the borough council before.

In 2004 he challenged a planning decision by the council which prevented him from rebuilding Sandown Hall, a 200 year old grade 2 listed building on land at Bollington Lane, Nether Alderley.

The hall, built in 1810, was demolished from a site in Wavertree, Liverpool, and taken apart by Mr Stagg in the hope it could be reconstructed on greenbelt land in Nether Alderley.

Permission was refused and he subsequently lost a planning appeal and lodged a judicial review at the High Court to argue that the planning inspector’s ruling should be overturned.

Mr Justice Sullivan upheld the Inspector’s decision.