NEW figures show the traffic on Warrington's roads is slowly returning to normal.

The latest numbers for the week ending July 5 show a midweek average of 130,977 vehicles on the main roads of the town.

This was up five per cent on the week before.

And just 22 per cent below the same time last year.

It was also the highest number since lockdown was announced in the middle of March.

Warrington Guardian:

The orange line show last year and the blue line shows 2020

The users of the main Time Square car park are also rising - almost double those at the start of June, although still well down on last year.

Cycling also continues to rise.

There is a five per cent rise on the number of people cycling the previous week and a 50 per cent rise on the previous month.

A variety of new cycle lanes have been introduced by the council, especially around the town centre, as businesses reopened following the strict coronavirus lockdown in late March, April and early May.

Visitors to the town centre also rose, as did the number of bus passengers. They reached their highest number since mid-March but still way below this time last year.