Thousands expected to hit Staffordshire and Cheshire's roads for last minute festive planning

Thousands of people are expected to hit the roads in Staffordshire and Cheshire as last minute festive preparations take place.

The RAC is warning to expect busy roads throughout our region, particularly along the M6, the M53 north of Chester, and in and around Crewe.

Busy roads are expected after Christmas Day too, with Boxing Day set to be busy as people continue festivities or head back home.

The motoring organisation claims there will be 4.4 million additional trips across the UK on the 26th, and 3.8 million on the 27th December.

Dee Murray, from National Highways in the North West says: "Anywhere near the major town centres, or shopping centres, are all going to be busy. At the same time, people are going to be travelling north and travelling south to spend Christmas elsewhere, so I think everywhere is going to see an increase in traffic."

Traffic officers say they're already trying to free up our journeys by removing as many roadworks as possible.

"We've already removed 95% of roadworks to assist people. We've removed them whenever we can, just to make sure we've got as many lanes up as possible and to reduce delays as much as possible"

Over the festive period drivers have been advised to try to avoid major roads during the hours of 10am to 3pm, which is when journeys are expected to take significantly longer than usual.

it comes as conditions are expected to improve this week after bad weather caused disruption during the Christmas getaway period.

The Met Office has forecast a "grey Christmas" with some sunny spells and "extremely mild" temperatures.

It comes after a "perfect storm" of adverse weather conditions and road congestion led to widespread disruption during the Christmas getaway.

Over the weekend a handful of flights were cancelled at Manchester Airport because of strong winds, with a yellow weather warning issued.

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