A PLANNING expert has dismissed the economic prospects of building a second bridge across the River Mersey as “pie-in-the-sky”.

Professor Alan Wenban-Smith, a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said tolls on the new bridge would prevent any benefits until 2022, eight years after its opening.

Speaking at a public inquiry into the Mersey Gateway project, Professor Wenban-Smith said the scheme was “pie-in-the-sky”, promising economic wealth which might never happen.

He said: “It is counter-active – the amount being lost from the local economy now and the amount paid in tolls then will not financially balance until beyond 2030.

“The net benefit figures provided by the council, showing time savings and vehicle operating costs minus the costs paid out in tolls, do not balance.”

Estimates on the value of those savings, compared with net benefits to the economy, show a loss until 2021. In 2015, the projected first year of operation, a £4,552 loss is predicted, while, in 2022, a profit of £222,000 is predicted.

The grand profit total between 2015 and 2074 will be £229,393, 000 in 2002 prices.

Speaking after the inquiry, project director Steve Nicholson claimed that the “big picture for the bridge is prosperity”.