A team of volunteers spent an hour measuring the speed of passing vehicles on Macclesfield Road on Friday, 22nd May.
The local Community Speed Watch Group, joined by PCSO Sarah Stanley, clocked 57 vehicles travelling at speeds over 36mph. The maximum speed recorded was 49mph.
The Alderley Edge Community Speed Watch group was established in 2012 in a bid to address the issue of speeding vehicles in the village.
The volunteers have been trained in the use of a speed gun and motorists who are clocked travelling at an excessive speed by the volunteers are sent a warning letter from the police, notifying them that if they are caught again, they could face a fine and three points on their licence.
The team now require more volunteers to dedicate an hour of their time once every week or two weeks. They will be working alongside the other volunteers to monitor the traffic speed, record the registration numbers, make model and colour of speeding vehicles.
PCSO Sarah Stanley said "This is a team effort and the more staff we can recruit would allow more sessions to be undertaken."
Anyone interested in joining the group can contact PCSO Sarah Stanley on 0845 458 6374.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
How do you overtake these vehicles without accelerating?
In response to a direct request from residents, I asked the Community Speed Watch team to focus on this area. As Hazelcroft Gardens & Congleton Close both have concealed entrances, speeding vehicles make it quite dangerous to turn out from either of these cul-de-sacs.
It does not lie within the remit of the Community Speed Watch team to deal with contractors' vehicles, although you quite rightly identify that they are a problem. It would probably help if future planning decisions included a restriction on the road-side parking of these vehicles.
Ultimately, the Speed Watch team are a group of volunteers trying to do their bit for the community, so I applaud them for that. The time commitment is typically just a few hours per month, so I encourage anyone who may be interested in helping, to contact Sarah Stanley.
If you find it almost impossible to drive at or below the speed limit on a piece of road might I suggest that you either get your vehicle checked out by a qualified technician or hand your drivers licence back to the DVLA, stating that you can no longer control a vehicle correctly.
Surely the speeding problem on Macclesfield Road is down the hill towards the village, NOT, up the hill shortly before a de restricted zone. If the man power is short, use it where the need is greatest. Driving up the hill at low speed uses more fuel and produces more pollution.
P.S. The volunteers all had smiles on their faces, glad they were happy.
Also, kindly refrain from insults, I can drive perfectly well, I suggest you try driving up the hill in question at a low speed. If you look back on the original report, 56 cars clocked in 1 hour is one a minute. So, I am not unique.
I guess you must have read a different Highway Code to me, I missed the bit where it said it is ok to exceed the speed limit up a hill, or the bit where it said speed limits onley apply to certain drivers.
If you want to speed, that is your choice, but don't complain and get cross with other people if you get caught. Equally, please don't take pointing out the blindingly obvious to you as being an insult.
The reason I chose to be a speedwatch volunteer for 2 years was because I had witnessed the devastating effects of road casualties caused by speeding motorists.
The roads, and the volunteer's position on those roads, are decided by the police. As the picture above shows, they are are clearly visible in their high viz jackets with a clear view ahead and do not 'jump out from behind bushes', and would certainly be happier if they became redundant.
I drive up and down that road regularly, using my gears and brakes to control my speed, but either way, any speed recorded over 35 mph in a 30 mile limit will be noted and submitted to the police who will send you a warning letter. I think that is very fair don't you?
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I'm a bit confused. You state in your first comment on this article that it is 'almost impossible to drive up the hill on a queue of traffic under 30 miles an hour' and later that 'the speed watch team jumped out of the hedge three quarters of the way UP Macclesfield Road almost at the de restricted sign on the steepest part of the hill' and later still that 'The volunteers all had smiles on their faces, glad they were happy.'
That suggests to me that you may have been speeding. Your last claim that 'When in a lower gear, you use more fuel and produce more emissions.' just serves to suggest to me that you were, in fact, exceeding the speed limit and that you object to being caught.
You may have a legitimate suggestion that the speed watch volunteers would be better used on the downhill part of Macclesfield Road, but the fact of the matter is, speeding is speeding. And, frankly, cars speeding through the village is an ongoing and serious concern. '56 cars clocked in 1 hour is one a minute' suggests to me that this part of our village is one area that should be monitored. If it inconveniences you, perhaps you should either drop your speed up the hill (and hang the cost of extra fuel and emissions), or find another route that you find it easier to keep to the legal speed limit?
Perhaps you should quit before you dig a deeper hole. You are now attacking cyclists that according to you regularly exceed over 30 on that stretch. Really? Have you been out there with a speed gun and a high via jacket and recorded this? I don't think so. If someone breaks the law and gets caught there is no point whinging about it, instead they should take responsibility for their actions and stop blaming others.
I still find it unbelievable that the junction is virtually blind turning right and even when motorists see you are struggling to turn onto Macclesfield Road they don't let you out. I'm unsure if this is due to the fact that the "knights of the road" are extinct or if it is due to them travelling far too fast up the hill and subsequently are unable to stop even if they wanted too - I suspect the latter!!
The comment regarding the contractors parking could not be more appropriate. Where the lane from our house meets Macclesfield Road is also where there is pavement on one side of the road only. This is also where the contractors feel the need to park. They park vans on the one pavement so effectively pedestrians, mums pushing trolleys and people in wheelchairs have no other option than to use the road and travel into the oncoming traffic.
The council, in it's wisdom, assumed that the contractors would only be a very temporary feature however, they will be around for the next four years minimum so when you have to tackle the road every day it does present a distinct challenge.
The traffic albeit uphill or downhill is always travelling too fast as is evidenced by the fact that the Victorian wall outside the Lodge is currently awaiting rebuild after a car lost control and ended up colliding with it.
I for one am so pleased that these vehicles were recorded speeding as it is comprehensive confirmation of what we all know to be the case. A group of local residents have been trying to make this road safer for a number of months now.
The council in their wisdom rejected the idea of double yellow lines as it was felt it was not in keeping with the conservation area! Subsequently they agreed prima facia to no overtaking lines which would prevent any parking adjacent to them and they also agreed to a speed recording device being situated on the road.
The device records the number of vehicles speeding, flashes up the speed and is solar powered so is effectively cheap to run! It doesn't fine anyone it simply reminds drivers that they are speeding. An actual speed camera was considered to be too expensive to place although personally I would have thought that an actual speed camera would be more appropriate as surely it would pay for itself based on the number of vehicles found to have been speeding during this one hour project!!
However, this was all going through at the time of the election and since there has been a change of council so it will be interesting to see if AE First will continue to help us to pursue making this road safer for both pedestrians and motorists.
There have already been a number of deaths on this road and it is yet another accident waiting to happen. I for one will be volunteering to help with the Community Speed Watch Group but I do think that far more practical measures could and should be implemented - a problem has been identified so there is no point in identifying it if action to resolve it is not taken.
I think you both need to read my original comment, I was in a queue of traffic so we must all have been clocked. I was not travelling through the village as I was travelling out of the village towards Over Alderley. I am not "blaming others" and am not "digging any holes" their are plenty of them on the old A34. I will not be contacting the highways department or the roads policing dept. just using this site to voice my humble opinion for what it's worth.
Macclesfield Road is and always has been a road where motorists constantly flout the speed limit imposed. Over the past few years many drivers ascending and descending the hill appear to have aspirations of being F1 Driver's. The problem is that they misjudge the road and in doing so end up having accidents. The outer wall of my property currently bear the scars. In February, a vehicle completely lost control on the bend at 'The Whins' and collided with my listed property. Neither the Driver or Passenger on this occasion were injured however, had a vehicle been travelling up the road it would have resulted in a head on collision and a certain fatality. There has already been two deaths in recent years on this stretch of road. As a resident close to the road I do not want to have to attend any such incident prior to the services arriving at the scene.
Prior to the recent Elections, Frank Keegan along with the AEPC had made progress with
Cheshire East Highways in order to put traffic calming measures in place along the road by way of Double White Lines and the installation of a speed restricting sign that would measure the average speeds. The installation of White Lines would also stop Building Contractors parking and allow the Police to enforce the law fully. Macclesfield Road ideally should have Double Yellow Lines from top to bottom as it is totally unsafe to park vehicles on the roadside. In any event, most of the properties have sufficient onsite parking to accommodate their guests. Whilst this would not solve the problem it would have made some inroad. The real solution was and would be to install speed cameras which would more than pay for themselves but, for some reason Cheshire East are not 'pro' this method.
Some years ago the Police used to control the speeding both on Macclesfield Road and Congleton Road at the junction of Whitebarn Road by way of hand held speed cameras. Financial Cutbacks though have ended such activity.
I have written to Craig Browne our newly elected Councillor but, as yet have not received any response. I am hopeful that our newly elected Council will be keen to pick up the mantle.