KEY Merseyside projects – to build bridges, roads, rail links and expand the port – would “grind to a halt” under leaked Conservative plans, it was claimed last night.

Labour leapt on the revelation that the regional spatial strategy (RSS) would be scrapped within weeks of a Conservative election victory. The Tories are planning to use executive powers to axe the RSS – a wide-ranging strategy for housing, transport and business investment over the next decade – without the need to pass legislation.

The move, revealed in a leaked document, is the starkest evidence yet of David Cameron’s determination to sweep away all Labour’s regional structures – including, probably, the development agencies.

But it was immediately condemned by the professional body for town hall planners as an own goal that would “take the planning system back decades”.

The Planning Officers Society warned the idea failed to address key issues – economic growth, climate change, infrastructure improvement - because of an obsession with scrapping housing targets.

And Phil Woolas, the Minister for the North- West, said crucial Merseyside projects would be at risk, including:

The £431m gateway Second Mersey Crossing, where the RSS funded key feasibility studies and threw the weight of the region behind the project;

The £100m scheme to electrify the Liverpool to Manchester rail line;

Expansion plans at the Port of Liverpool, including road and rail links to berths at Wirral, Ellesmere Port, Warrington and Salford;

The expansion of John Lennon Airport, which is identified as a key project in the RSS;

Plans for new waste disposal plants – crucial because Merseyside has run out of landfill sites.

Mr Woolas said: “It would be absolute chaos if the Tories did this. And the immediate impact would be that the construction industry would grind to a halt.

“How would you electrify the Liverpool to Manchester rail line, or build the Second Mersey Crossing, or other key sub-regional projects like the Liverpool One development? It is also nonsense to suggest this would hand powers to local authorities – those powers would simply go back to Whitehall.”