Councillor Williamson, chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council reported at last night's meeting that they had had a very constructive meeting with Rob Cramer from Cheshire East Council's Highways Office regarding traffic management in the village once the bypass is completed.
Mike Williamson explained "A series of possible short term measures were discussed, we made some good progress and Rob Cramer produced a useful set of drawings."
One of the areas considered were the three junctions of Ryleys Lane, Heyes Lane and Macclesfield Road with London Road. It was decided not to do anything at the Heyes Lane junction and Macclesfield Road proved too difficult to decide at this stage but plans for Ryleys Lane include restructuring the junction and creating a much bigger space in front of the war memorial.
It was also agreed not to spend £100,000 putting in a new set of traffic lights. Mike Williamson said "We want to make more of a rural atmosphere in the village and adding another set of traffic lights was thought to be a bit urban."
Changing priorities and designations of roads was also discussed at the meeting and it was agreed that a weight limit will be in place by the time the bypass opens to prevent heavy goods vehicles using London Road, but the councillors did comment that the police are the only people who can enforce weight restrictions so they questioned how these restrictions would actually be enforced.
One of the challenges to resolve will be the issue of loading hours which have apparently been set at key times of the day when the roads are at their busiest, such as 7am to 10am. In order to change these the Parish Council were advised they need to generate pressure locally to see if they can challenge council policy.
The Parish Council have a follow up meeting with Rob Cramer on 23rd June and Mike Williamson said "I'd like to think that by the end of June we will have some schemes to put to the public. We can't understand how the traffic flows will be affected by the bypass until it has been open for 12 months so these will be short term, low impact and low cost schemes initially."
