Traffic lights proposed for Chorley Hall Lane

chl

Following confirmation that a new one way system on West Street will be funded by the Wilmslow Area Highways Partnership (which allocates about £22,000 a year to various small scale projects across Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Handforth) money is now available to introduce traffic lights on Chorley Hall Lane, rather than a one-way system.

Councillor Craig Browne had been planning to use S106 funds for the one-way system but as this money is still available he is suggesting the £50,000 be used to install traffic lights at the railway bridge on Chorley Hall Lane to improve safety for pedestrians - particularly those with wheelchairs and pushchairs.

Speaking about the Wilmslow Area Highways Partnership decision to fund the one-way system on West Street, Councillor Browne said "As a consequence of that traffic lights, rather than a one-way system have now been added as a scheme for consideration. It is important to recognise that such a scheme will still need further investment from the highway's budget and that this is not yet guaranteed but it is at least being considered."

The cost of installing traffic lights on Chorley Hall Lane would be about £100,000 so Cheshire East Highways will need to be persuaded to come up with the other £50,000 from the capital budget.

Councillor Browne added "The resident's survey which I ran last year showed that 82% of respondents agreed that the footpath over the railway bridge is dangerous for pedestrians and people with wheelchairs and pushchairs. However, only 62% thought a one-way system was the correct response to that.

"I recognise that a one-way system was not everybody’s preferred solution, but sometimes it is necessary to show that you have thoroughly considered and investigated less popular options."

Councillor Browne now plans to repeat the survey over the coming days but with traffic lights as the proposed solution rather than a one-way system. (Once the survey has been put together we will add a link to it on alderleyedge.com.)

He also confirmed that with the revised proposal, not being a one-way system, it would be mean that the provision of an additional 18 on-street parking spaces would probably not be possible.

What do you think about plans to install traffic lights at the railway bridge on Chorley Hall Lane? Do you think it is necessary to improve safety? Or would you prefer to see it made one-way? Share you views via the comment box below.

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Chorley Hall Lane
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Bob Bracegirdle
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 6:45 pm
Traffic lights. I know many places in the country where this works well, such as canal bridges built in an era of horses and carts.
Tony Haluradivth
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 8:36 pm
I know slightly off topic but before all this money is "blown" can someone in the know tell me why we had Wilmslow road closed over half term for 1 week when all that was resurfaced was (the admittedly) bad stretch at the Brook Lane junction. I am glad that has been done but we were told that "Wilmslow road was scheduled to be resurfaced in early 2018 and road closures and diversions would be in place". So upshot is 1 week closure and inconvenience for 1 small rectangle. To add insult to injury procceding south toward the village and there is a massive trench on the road going over the bridge. Are these Highways engineers for real? They had the equipment and road closure in place all week and they would have actually driven OVER THAT HUGE POTHOLE. Perhaps they are just idiots ?Seriously why are they getting away with this nonsense? And I still do not understand why Heyes Lane is being included in the capital budget after April as we were told and then it is not and now they do not know one way or the other 2 full years after problems were flagged. I resent a huge hike in my Council Tax and the glossy expensively produced booklet produced by our Council patting Highways on the back. This is NOT good enough and I just wondered if our hardworking Councillor Craig has any further information on the 2 issues mentioned above.
Oh, and "stop the presses the 3 potholes close to each other on the road to Macc' just by the Slade Lane junction? Well they were reported to the "crack" Highways team in the second week of January and their solution? Slap a set of traffic lights there for just under 3 months, as my granson would say "epic FAIL" CEC....
Ian Cook
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 12:25 am
Couldn't have said this any better, it's getting deeper and wider by the day!

To add insult to injury procceding south toward the village and there is a massive trench on the road going over the bridge. Are these Highways engineers for real? They had the equipment and road closure in place all week and they would have actually driven OVER THAT HUGE POTHOLE. Perhaps they are just idiots ?Seriously why are they getting away with this nonsense?
Chris Howlison
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 9:55 am
Lights on the bridge will be so much better than a one way system. The one way would force many more cars to join the heavy traffic through the villiage towards the station, and that is bad enough already.
Jon Williams
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 10:09 am
Lights holding up traffic again, should have been one-way !
Duncan Herald
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 10:17 am
Will the 'new' plan allow for widening of the footpath over the bridge?
What length of C.H.L. will be virtually one-way due to traffic lights?
Charlie Gaughan
Thursday 15th March 2018 at 9:17 am
Well done common sense at last good job craig you’ve had to work hard at that . let’s hope everything else starts falling in place for you and the team
Giles Geddes
Thursday 15th March 2018 at 4:08 pm
I think traffic lights are a great idea. Fingers crossed the £50k can be stumped up.
David Hadfield
Thursday 15th March 2018 at 7:08 pm
Coming back to the POTHOLE situation, I entirely agree with both Tony Haluradivth and Ian Cook ....... why didn't the Highways Agency or whatever they're called repair the massive pothole on the bridge coming into Alderley from Wilmslow, near the station / Piccolinos ?

Furthermore, THIS MORNING these guys were filling-in potholes just in front of the entrance to Alderley Edge Tennis Club, but yet, literally another 2 yards away, they didn't repair another one ? Why not ? ....... Who is in charge of these workmen ?

The whole subject of POTHOLES in Cheshire is a joke, or at least it would be a joke if it were not so serious ...... wonder how many motorists are claiming for damaged tyres and wheels that have to written off due to the inefficiency of the Cheshire Council Clowns ?

Could someone tell me the name of the Cheshire Councillor who is responsible for Road Maintenance ? ..... Maybe we should all write to him to show our disgust at his useless programme and policies ?
Pete Taylor
Friday 16th March 2018 at 9:15 am
Highways Portfolio holder: Cllr David Brown. Reportedly he is currently suspended and under Police investigation.

One of six police investigations into CEC Councillors.
Alan Brough
Friday 16th March 2018 at 9:19 am
@David Hadfield,

I share your (and others) frustration at the parlous condition of local roads. However, whilst CE Council are absolutely hopeless at maintaining our roads in a safe and proper condition, they are ruthlessly efficient at refuting claims for damage.

I speak from bitter experience having spent eight months, fifteen email / letter exchanges and a great deal of time and effort to recover approx. £400 for damage to a wheel caused by a crater on a blind bend in Warford that I had the misfortune to hit at 0530 in the morning.

CE Council outsource claims to a pseudo-legal firm in Leeds who take great delight in tying claimants up in knots with all sorts of obfuscation and nonsense in what is clearly an attempt at putting people off "going the distance" with them.

If you are unlucky enough to experience damage as a result of hitting a pothole make sure you report the pothole and get a reference number for having logged the problem, get photos of the pothole (note if it has white paint around it,) photos of the damage to your vehicle, make an accurate record of exactly where the pothole is (they will dispute it to within yards) and keep receipts for any work done.

They may well inform you that the pothole has not previously been reported or that the inspection timetable under their duty of care to examine roads exempts them. Challenge them on this and if necessary ask to see a record of reported road faults for the area.

They are hard-wired to wear you down in the hope that you will give up before they do.
Craig Browne
Friday 16th March 2018 at 12:33 pm
Hi all,

Just to pick up on a few of your comments, as I again understand and share your frustrations. I regularly report potholes around the village and those of you who follow me on Facebook will be aware that I usually publish the report reference numbers (to pick up on Alan’s point about being able to prove that they have been reported, but left unrepaired).

With respect to the Wilmslow Road/Brook Lane junction, I first reported this around about July 2016, but as it involved a complete resurface rather than a reactive repair, it had to be budgeted and programmed. The work has recently been carried out, but only with the help of “left over” funds saved on other projects elsewhere. Ideally, the officers had hoped to resurface all the way down to the junction of Heyes Lane, but there were insufficient residual funds to enable them to do this. I have pressed for the work will be included in the capital budget for 2018/19, along with Heyes Lane itself, but it will be a few more weeks before we find out one way or the other.

Generally speaking, the officers are very receptive to my requests for support, but they are continually being asked (by the politicians) to carry out their work with reduced funding, so I do understand that they are in a difficult position and mostly, they are trying their best. To that end, I’m pleased to see that the pothole on the railway bridge, heading into the village, has been repaired this morning.

Cllr David Brown left the Highways Portfolio earlier this year and has been replaced by Cllr Don Stockton.

Kind regards,
Craig
Pete Taylor
Friday 16th March 2018 at 1:33 pm
Thanks for correcting me regarding David Brown.

Don Stockton lives in Alderley.
Tony Haluradivth
Saturday 17th March 2018 at 3:16 pm
Rod Menlove perhaps YOU who dips into this forum would comment. YOU Rod were instrumental in awarding this contract to Ringway Jacob in 2011 and it has now gone from bad to worse. The contract expired in 2016 so who decided to keep it rolling ? (Don Stockton time for you to chime in). Back to Mr Menlove you blew your own trumpet on the £1000000 yearly savings to be made (was it worth it when BAM Nuttall did a much better job?). Furthermore those savings were more than swallowed up when the first payoffs started happening. Erica Wenzl sucked up a lot of our money in payoffs and you Mr Menlove were very tetchy with a member of our family when she phoned you way back then to ask why that particular Council Officer was getting so much of our money. The senior HR team and CEC lawyers need to be criticised 100 percent for luring folk with ridiculous GREEDY contracts. Yes Ms Wenzl was greedy as are all the other folk in receipt of huge undeserved payoffs while our roads and streets go unrepaired. As a natural Tory voter (I do not say thus lightly) I now urge folk to vote these parasites out and perhaps go Independent (as the other side are worse and have much previous form on council corruption ....Tower Hamlets springs to mind here.)
Tony Haluradivth
Saturday 17th March 2018 at 4:31 pm
http://bit.ly/2tTfUo9 ROFFL ( as the "millenials" might say) . Senior folk in Highways plus portfolio managers need to be held to account I am sick of the lying and obfuscation .
Kathryn Blackburn
Sunday 18th March 2018 at 10:14 am
Meanwhile back at the Traffic Lights on Chorley Hall Road. Do hope they will be on a quick change cycle or there will be an almighty problem of backed up traffic on to the main road.
Pete Taylor
Sunday 18th March 2018 at 9:11 pm
Tony, don’t expect any comments from Menlove, Stockton or the other Tory Cllrs; they are now paying our money to a PR/Spin company and are hunkered in the bunker until the 2019 election season starts, when they will spout whatever they are told to say.
Be advised that our new MP and The Party are preparing to chuck untold amounts to make amends for the shame of the total defeat by Independents who were fed up with, frankly, party bullies and crap.
Alderley First showed what could be done when the snoozing electorate was somnambulant. Well done to them.
Incidentally, I have no connection whatsoever with Alderley First.
David Hadfield
Monday 19th March 2018 at 3:57 pm
What on earth are you talking about Peter Taylor.
Alderley First told us how good they were going to be if elected.
They would solve the parking issue, which, if you remember 3 years ago, was the most important thing on the agenda, but yet, here we are three years later, still having exactly the same problems with parking in this village.
Okay, they've probably added a few extra parking places here and there, but overall, very little has been done over the number one item on the agenda.
Plus they keep blaming the original Tory Councillors over the extra cost of the Festival Hall but at least those original councillors got most of the planning done for the Festival Hall.
Apart from Craig Browne, the others are pretty useless, IMHO.
Alan Brough
Tuesday 20th March 2018 at 8:33 am
David,

Sorry to weigh-in with some facts in response to your quite extraordinary comment above but, Alderley Edge First quite emphatically DIDNT promise to solve the parking problem - instead they promised to investigate and consult over ALL available options having identified serious flaws and widespread objections to the main plan proposed by the previous PC - that plan was later found to be completely untenable for practical and cost reasons.

As you rightly acknowledge, the new PC has added a decent number of new parking bays within the village and they have identified plans to create more.

I'm not sure if you walk around with your eyes closed but the work done by the PC last year in bringing proper floral displays into the Village, removing unsightly street furniture and regularly bringing together PC members and volunteers to maintain borders in the Park and remove litter is well documented and appreciated (by most)

Alderley Edge Library may well have been closed by now had it not been for the timely intervention and actions of a number of PC members.

We have a Youth Council now that gives a voice to younger members of our community and encourages them to get actively involved in their immediate environment.

I could go on but hopefully even the most cock-eyed pessimist might be persuaded that the PC has been a force for good in Alderley Edge and understand that whilst Craig Browne has been a very visible, productive and influential Councillor, he is supported by a strong and talented team of local people who care about Alderley Edge......FIRST!
Duncan Herald
Tuesday 20th March 2018 at 10:34 am
Pete Taylor.
In your post above you make an unsustainable attack on our new M.P.
M/S McVey has kept every promise she has made.
She has charged around the constituancy, attending more meetings than you'd expect.
She has been a real breath of fresh air. I for one am most impressed with her.
If you find something you do not like about her work, that is evidentiary, then feel free to report it but otherwise why not behave fairly?
Pete Taylor
Tuesday 20th March 2018 at 3:40 pm
Hello Duncan, I have not made any attack on our MP, unsustainable or not. I imagine that being elected in a very safe seat and finding that an entire Parish Council were recently chucked out at an election where the swing was to Conservative nationally was pretty impressive,would be something of an embarrassing situation.

No doubt you will have been able to explain to her exactly what went on.

What makes you think I have found something I don’t like about her work? I did not say, or imply that.

Before shooting from the hip maybe you should read what has actually been written?
Pete Taylor
Tuesday 20th March 2018 at 7:52 pm
@ David Hadfield, do keep on posting; you make us all smile.
Duncan Herald
Tuesday 20th March 2018 at 11:21 pm
Pete,
your words above include "our new M.P. ... preparing to chuck untold amounts ...".
In the real world that constitutes an attack.
You have no justification whatsoever that M/S McVey has any such intention.
Why not simply say that you got a wee bit carried away and 'shot from the hip'?
It is now, by the way, several years since the last election; you have to move on !
Alan,
you mention borders in the park. Have you visited the park recently and seen how trees and flowering bushes and heathers have been uprooted? To be replaced, at one site, by grass.
Were you consulted on that? No and seemingly neither were any of the regular users of the park to whom I talk. Several men working, several vehicles involved and several days taken; I wonder whether someone can give an account of what this (to me institutional) vandalism cost?
Alan Brough
Thursday 22nd March 2018 at 9:53 am
Hi Duncan,

Yes, I walk through the park several times a week and I've seen the work being carried out.

"Alderley Edge in Bloom" have an excellent Facebook page and on it they explain that ANSA, on behalf of Conservative-controlled CE Council, is carrying out work to re-shape borders in the park.

I suppose it's like much of the other re-shaping work being done to local green areas on a much bigger scale by Conservative-controlled CE Council......wouldn't you say?
Duncan Herald
Thursday 22nd March 2018 at 10:59 am
Good Morning Alan,
the phrase 're-shape borders' sounds almost impressive.
What we actually have, as of a few days ago, is:
1. by the old band-stand, a whole raft of mature (and healthy) conifer trees and several heathers have been up-rooted and are to be replaced (I am told) by 3 flower-beds.
2. a little further along that path, a mature (about 20 years old) beech tree and a group of flowering bushes have been up-rooted and that ground is (I am told) to be grassed over.

So we lose a variety of attractive plant life and birds/butterflies etc. lose feeding and shelter.

To me that is vandalism. Perhaps you can respond here by telling us exactly who's idea this was (who please, not some amorphous 'body') and how much it is costing us?

And please don't try to make this park matter something to compare with housing on green belt (that is what your last paragraph is about ?). I can't do much about housing but I had hoped that local people might have been asked if they wanted the park changing.

And whilst I am 'banging on': over the last few years, quite a few trees have been cut down, in the park. Where are the replacement saplings ? I stuck a beech sapling in (its the sole remaining plant in the 'bomb-site' by the old band-stand) and a company donated and planted a flowering cherry.

When I was the Parish Councillor with a remit to keep an eye on the park, I often came onto alderleyedge.com to ask for people's opinion on what I was suggesting might happen in the park.
If I could manage that, why can't others?
Alan Brough
Thursday 22nd March 2018 at 2:26 pm
Hi Duncan,

I'm afraid you ask too many questions of me.

I am but a mere parishioner (as are you these days) and so I don't have the answers that your insatiable thirst for knowledge demands.

I do share some of your concerns about the dramatic changes being made but I await the finished picture before making final judgement.

I agree (again) that under your stewardship the park was well maintained and I know that you cared (and continue to care) passionately about it - that's very much to your credit.

Having said all of that, I do believe that the park has been improved in the last couple of years with new playground equipment and a long overdue tidying-up of the car park area as well as the addition of some attractive planting in the general borders.

I know that several of the current councillors take a pro-active interest in all things horticultural and arboreal and so I'm sure that they won't let their guard down.
Pete Taylor
Friday 23rd March 2018 at 11:34 pm
@Duncan, regarding your comment to me on Tuesday 20th; presumably you are no longer up to speed with the movers and shakers at Tatton Conservatives?
Good luck with the dog poo argument but I fear you are marching to the beat of a different drum from the rest of us.
Charlie Gaughan
Sunday 25th March 2018 at 7:41 am
I thought this story was about trafic lights and what a good idea . May be we should ask Lisa for a page for all the other whingeing no one has mentioned dog poo yet
Claire MacLeod
Monday 26th March 2018 at 3:16 pm
Charlie, I'm torn. Whilst I agree with your sentiment about the fact that this thread has veered well off its original course, having just stumbled across it, I do hope you will allow me one observation.

It relates to our old friend, Duncan, and his remark to Pete Taylor, "It is now, by the way, several years since the last election; you have to move on !"

I couldn't agree more, which is why I was disheartened to read, only a few comments later, that Duncan simply couldn't help himself, and had to add, "When I was the Parish Councillor with a remit to keep an eye on the park, I often came onto alderleyedge.com to ask for people's opinion on what I was suggesting might happen in the park. If I could manage that, why can't others?"!

Make up your mind, Duncan! Either we move on, or we don't. You can't have it both ways! I think that could be described as 'having your cake and eating it'.

Thank you. As you were.
Duncan Herald
Tuesday 27th March 2018 at 9:28 am
Hallo Claire,
could we perhaps see your suggestions/comments on the matter of the chopping down of the mature trees and the grubbing up pf the bushes, heathers etc.?
Did you know about it in advance and if not, do you think you (and others) should have been consulted/informed?
Are you 'happy' with the removal and do you think that you (and others) should be consulted re. what is to replace the chopped down trees etc.?
Do you not agree that if someone as ordinary as me was able to seek peoples' opinions before doing things in the park, then anyone could do the same nowadays? (and that is not me praising me, but a suggestion that the community could/should be involved re. the park; rather than just leave things to our 'betters').

Pete,
are you implacably opposed to bins? Or just to bins used by dog-owners?

Alan,
if you wait until you can see the finished picture; what can be done if you do not like the finished picture? We can't stick the chopped down trees back in the ground.
Do you not agree that the community should have been consulted befoehand?

Which leads to a somewhat philosophical point: who 'owns' the park? Those who use it regularly? or all the inhabitants of A.E. or 'ansa' or the Parish Council? or just C.E.?

Happy early Easter.
Peter Hallmark
Tuesday 27th March 2018 at 11:04 am
Seems this has moved on from being about traffic lights on Chorley Hall lane. I was wondering about what is the situation regarding burning waste. I live near Chorley Hall lane and some one likes to burn waste on the corner with Green lane and Chorley Hall lane. If it is legal then no problem. However, I just washed my black car and then it was covered in small particles of white ash from the local fire. Also the smell was not so pleasant when out in the garden. Any thoughts?