THE long-awaited M6 link road to Heysham will be built.

That's the promise of local councillors as talks about the multi-million pound project are set to come to a head.

Lancaster City councillors will consider which route between the motorway and Heysham village should get the nod at an extraordinary council meeting on August 31.

And two days later Lancashire County Council will hear the results of a consultants' report into the M6 link before it makes a decision.

It will include detailed studies of the environmental and economic impact of both the Northern and Western routes to the port.

A spokesman for the city council says its corporate plan recognises the overwhelming' local support for a new link road.

"The City Council will strive to work with the county Council to secure a route," she says.

County Cllr Jean Yates, Cabinet member for highways and transport and a Heysham resident also says the road will definitely go ahead.

"A consultation was conducted two years ago and more than 75 per cent of Lancaster residents said they wanted the road," she told the Citizen "The only disagreement in that report was over which road be adopted and we will make that decision in September. The road will go ahead."

But city Cllr John Whitelegg, leader of the Green Party in Lancaster, disagrees with the need for a link road and says there is no evidence to prove local people want it.

"Three consultations have already failed and so saying there is massive support behind it is nonsense it is wishful thinking on behalf of the city and county councils," he says.

"The impact will be zero, £70 million will be wasted and we will be back to square one because after three years the roads will be grid-locked."

He also claims that city councillors as well as the public have not been informed correctly about the impact the road will have.

"The whole thing is a dog's dinner. It will never work but we have two authorities who desperately want this by-pass and so have driven a horse and cart through the procedures."